The Oblivious Boy and the Forceful Girl
by H-Byakushiki
Summary: The Kiss was seen around the classroom. Laura wanted to keep Ichika close to her for Chifuyu's sake, but will feelings start to develop between the duo and How will the other girls react? LauraXIchika. Review please! Rated for safety. spoilers up to ep. 8
1. Aftermath

God, I love this series. I was looking through the Fanfics and noticed that there was no LauraXIchika so i thought I'd make one. I hope you like it. Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters. This chapter was written when episode 8 was released

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They kiss. In front of the entire classroom, they kissed. The German piloting the Schwarzer Regen had pulled the young Japanese man piloting the Byakushiki to her and locked lips with him. She didn't care if he wanted to or not; she just did it. Ichika had been left speechless. He had no idea how to react; should he act like it was something he enjoyed or hated, should he act like he liked her or rejected her, should he run or hide from Houki, Cecilia, and Rin as they were sure to come to beat him up thinking that he had been hiding their relationship from them. Before he could answer any of those questions, Laura Bodewig declared this:

"Y-You are going to be my wife. That's been decided. All objections are dismissed" The three women mentioned before all had looks of jealousy strung around their faces. 'Ichika and Laura!' they all thought. Charlotte, while being speechless like everyone else in the room, thought it was kind of cute. She had already decided that Ichika has been more than a friend to her, giving her the courage to confess her true gender and not be afraid of the consequences or why she had originally been sent here. Deep down she knew that she had some feelings for Ichika, but she was unsure whether the feeling was mutual and with the display she just witnessed, she was convinced that he liked Laura. Little did they know that that kiss was as much a surprise to them as it was to Ichika.

"I-uhh-errrr-ummmm," Ichika stuttered, as red as a strawberry, "Ahhh…" He gasped as he fainted and fell toward the ground.

"Ehhh," Laura said, flustered and slightly embarrassed, blushing a little which was very unusual for her.

"Right. Time to start class for the day. She retracted her personal IS and walked over to her seat, her posture as perfect as ever. She sat down and crossed her legs as usual. Houki, Cecilia, and Rin were still taken aback from the act of passion done by Laura. Just then, Chifuyu, Ichika's older sister, and Maya, their green haired class instructor, walked in, only to see the young Orimura passed out on the ground and all the girls except Laura standing and staring at either Laura or Ichika. Laura rested her chin in her hand to signify she was bored when she really did this so she could hide her unintentional smile. 'I did it! With that, Ichika will be mine, but even better, all of the other girls will think he is taken, leaving him all to me. This is what Orimura-sensei wanted. Of course, I don't really like Ichika. That is absurd!'

"Ichika Orimura, get up immediately!" Chifuyu commanded.

"Orimura-sensei," Charlotte said, raising her hand. "I think Ichika needs medical attention."

"It would seem that way. Yamada, get the emergency stretcher. I will bring Ichika to the Medical Ward

along with Charlotte. She can fill me in on the situation. Proceed with the class until I return."

"Hai." Maya replied. Chifuyu laid out the stretcher on the ground and rolled her younger brother onto it. She couldn't help but have a small smile. 'Something like this would only happen to him.'

"Charlotte, help me pick him up." Charlotte walked over and assisted her in lifting Ichika. The two walked out of the classroom and started their way to the Medical Ward.

Charlotte was hold the back of the stretcher while Chifuyu had the front, with her back to Charlotte.

"So what exactly happened?" Chifuyu asked Charlotte. A hint of sincerity was in her voice, much different from the way she talked to the class

"Well," Charlotte said hesitantly. 'Should I lie? I mean this is her brother, who knows how she will react when she hears something like that. Many older siblings are protective of younger siblings. I might as well tell her the truth, she will find out one way or another.' "Rin came in, all in her IS when she shot a blast at Ichika. And…"

"And?" Charlotte's teacher asked.

"And Laura jumped up to block the shot in her IS. Then she grabbed Ichika and gave him a huge open-

mouth kiss, then declared him her wife with no exceptions."

"!" the elder Orimura gasped. 'Was this because of me and what I said to Laura about taking her own path and doing what she wanted?' "Well, I didn't know my little brother had a thing with Laura."

"That's what seems so weird about this. It didn't seem like he was expecting the kiss. It was probably a huge swirl of confusion and embarrassment that made him pass out. I think they are kind of cute together." Charlotte said with a smile, while inside she was hiding her true feelings for Ichika. "You know, he is almost kind of clueless to the feelings around him and Laura is such a forceful person it would be interesting to see how they act together."

"Laura…." Chifuyu said, interested. "So there was no hint of this before yesterday?"

"None that I could see, and I was his roommate. She never came in, they never talked; they even fought in this tournament with all they had. She even looked like she was out to hurt him. I wonder what could've sparked this change of heart….." Charlotte said, drifting off towards the end. Chifuyu could tell she was deep in thought without even looking at her.

"Charlotte," Chifuyu said solemnly, "It is okay. You don't have to hide your feelings from me. I've known you're a girl. I did a background check to see your past with your dad. I'm sure Ichika had something to do with you revealing your true identity. He is a teenage boy, he has no idea where is heart is. You just have to be strong, he will find who he truly belongs with soon." Charlotte's face became bright red. She made sure Ichika was still out on the stretcher. Tears began to well up in her eyes. 'Ichika…..' she thought. Chifuyu knew what was going on even though she couldn't see her. The 3 of them arrived at the Medical Ward.

"All we need is a bed for him to rest. He fainted, so he should just rest here for a little while."

"That is not a problem." The girl at the reception desk said with a smile. "There is no one else in there. Pick any bed you want."

"Thank you." Chifuyu said sternly, as they brought him into the room. They lifted him off the stretcher and laid him on the bed. Chifuyu pulled the covers over him and brushed the hair out of his face. "Let's sit for a little while."

Chifuyu pulled up 2 chairs for the two of them to sit in. The chairs were both facing each other when they sat down. Charlotte tried to wipe the tears from her eyes quick before any fell, and she was successful.

"Look Charlotte, Ichika is not someone that it would be easy to be in a relationship with. He is oblivious to many things around. Plus he is the only male able to pilot an IS, which could make him wanted by many people and organizations. That is why I brought him to the academy, to keep an eye on him. He is not someone that a sweet young woman like you should like, you have enough on your mind." These words hit Charlotte hard. She hoped that it was just his sister looking out for him. She had a hard time admitting to liking Ichika. Of all the girls, it was least evident that she liked him. She thought that she could still play out that she didn't like him.

"I don't li—" She was wrong. Her hand went up to her face to cover a cry as a single tear fell from her left eye, already red from before. She let out a few yelps, gasping for air. Chifuyu looked at her with sadness, but also had some looks of irritation in her face. She embraced the young blonde into her arms.

"I know it is tough," She said, "But us women have to stay strong. Crying over a guy won't make anything better." She felt Charlotte increase her hold on her. "But….I suppose a cry every once in a while wouldn't hurt." Chifuyu was never the best at relaying her feelings. She saw Laura almost as an exact copy of her when she was her age, and she was definitely not one to cry over something as trivial as a boy, but she tried her best to be understanding to the young, confused girl. "Take some time for yourself," she said moving Charlotte off of her but still holding her shoulders. "And remember stay strong, we can't have women in this day and age falling into the weak and feeble category. I'll be waiting outside so we can walk back together." Chifuyu rose and walked out of the room, her heels clicking and clacking with each step. Charlotte's head fell into her hands as she sat there and cried, taking some time for herself.

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Please Review!


	2. How to save him

Chapter 2 is done. Pretty quick right? Anyway, I hope you like it. LauraXIchika, spoilers up to episode 8. I do NOT own Infinite Stratos (even though I wish I did)

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"What…..just happened?" Houki asked, breaking the silence the girls had created.

"Laura!" Rin exclaimed, "How long have you and Ichika been going out?"

"That matters?" Laura replied, snobby as ever.

"Grrrr…." Rin growled at her.

"I would also like to know this," Cecilia said, "For future reference."

"When would you ever need this for future reference?" Laura asked, even more snobby than before.

"HUH." Cecilia scoffed at her. "I obviously wouldn-"

"Guys, leave her alone," Houki said, looking out the window to the left of her desk. "This is not the time to be discussing this, class is going to start now. We can ask questions later."

"Ummm, right," Maya said, even though she was interested in this subject. "Let's start attendance. Let me mark Ichika as present and not absent before I forget. She then began to read off the names of the girls in the class after all of them took their seats. The class went on as usual until,

"Pssst." someone was trying to get Cecilia's attention. She heard this looked over to whoever did it. It was Rin. This surprised Cecilia because Rin was not in their class, but she often would come in to talk to them. Rin flicked over a piece of paper over to her. It read:

"Cecilia,

This is a more pressing matter than class, even though I am the Class 2 Representative. Anyway, you, Houki, and I are going to meet up to decide what to do about this whole Laura situation. Of course, something must be done. We were all here first, but Laura just comes in and thinks she can just declare Ichika hers? I don't think so. Are you in?"

Cecilia looked over to Rin and nodded, to which Rin gave a thumbs up to symbolize that she got her response. Rin flicked over another piece of paper up to Houki, saying the same thing. Houki read through it, then extended her arm out to the side so the two of them could see it. She had the note in her. She crushed it, then dropped it onto the ground. Cecilia looked over to Rin and she had a look of surprise on her face. She then looked over to Cecilia, hoping she would have an answer, but Cecilia just shrugged at her. Eventually it became time to change into there IS piloting uniforms. Rin found Cecilia in the locker room and said,

"Do you have any idea about what we should do or why Houki doesn't want to do this?" Rin took off her boots and began took her below-the-knee socks off. "I always thought that she possibly had some feelings for Ichika. Is she really ok with a girl like Laura just claiming he is hers? It seems crazy to me."

"Well, Houki has had a past with Ichika, like you," The British woman said. She undid her belt and took off her uniform dress. "When you were friends with him, did he ever show any interest in other girls?"

"None that I can remember," Rin said pulling up the leg stockings that were standard issue as the IS piloting uniform. "He always did seem sort of oblivious towards girls, there were definitely some that liked him and tried to express it, but he just didn't get it. I really hate these stupid leg things they make us wear!" she exclaimed, having some difficulty pulling them on

"I kind of like them. I wish I could wear a pink uniform like you." Cecilia said already dressed ready for IS training.

"How the hell do you get dressed so quickly?" Rin asked. She still had to get the one piece shirt on and her shoes.

"Is this really the matter that we should be discussing right now?" Cecilia said. "We need to find Houki. Hurry up and then let's find her before we go out to the practice field."

"Yeah, you're right. We can discuss this later." The quickly pulled down her long blouse and put on her pink top. "Let's go, I can put my shoes on in the field." They walked two rows of lockers down to see Houki already changed and folding her clothes.

"Houki, you don't Laura to have Ichika's heart do you?" Rin blurted out. 'Ugh, I wish she thought a little more before she just did things,' thought Cecilia.

"Ichika isn't our property!" Houki said, raising her voice. "He can do what he wants, he isn't a kid, you know!"

'What idiots,' Laura thought to herself. Little did they know, Laura was one row down, listening in on them. 'It would seem that they are already plotting against me. I mean, Ichika is already mine. We kissed first. I mean, he is my boyfrie-' She began to blush a little 'Why did I just think that, he isn't my boyfriend. I'm just keeping him close for Orimura-sensei. That's all. Besides, he was the one who said he would protect me, so I'm going to return the favor and protect him from the girls who will just play games with him and won't just tell him how they feel.'

"Please, let's just all calm down for one second." Cecilia said, trying to stop this before it got out of hand. "Let's be calm, even though I must agree with Rin on this, why do you not care that she just stole his first kiss like that?"

"First of all, we don't know if that was his first kiss." 'Yeah, right' Rin and Cecilia thought sarcastically. "Maybe he likes her; he could have feelings for her. You want to break up what they have? It sounds like you two are a little jealous." Houki said.

The two girls began to blush. "W-we aren't jealous!" Rin exclaimed

"T-that's right, we are just friends. Besides Laura seems like someone who would hurt Ichika, like she was just using him for something. She could be a spy or even worse. I mean who wears an eye patch in this day and age." Cecilia said, starting out defensive, but slowly trying to shift Houki to her side.

'Like your stupid headband thing is any better' Laura thought.

"This is nonsense. I'll let Laura do what she wants. Ichika is my friend. If being with Laura makes him happy, then I will let him be happy. The only way I'm going to get in the way is if he comes and asks me himself. Now if you'll excuse me, we are going to be late for class if we don't hurry." Houki said calmly as she began her walk out of the locker room.

"No way….." Rin said sadly. She knew that Houki's words were right, but she knew that Ichika wouldn't want to be with someone like her. "Cecilia-"

"Don't worry; I'm still on your side." Cecilia interrupted and reassured her. "We will get her." 'For exactly what, I'm not sure' she thought to herself.

Laura chuckled to herself. 'How foolish they were' she thought. ' Well, I guess I should move onto class, the less attention the better. ' Laura walked to the corner of the row of orange lockers and began to walk towards the door. Her steps sounded as loud as ever, even though she had gray sneakers. She took 4 steps and she was right near the two young women. She turned to them with a blank face.

"!" Rin and Cecilia both gasped. They had no idea she was there, but at the same time, they didn't know if she even heard them talking. The time it took for her to walk past the space between the lockers felt like an eternity. Right as she was just about to vanish from their sights, a devious smile appeared on her face. It was only visible for a second, but it was like a stamp on their brains. That smile. She kept walking for a few more steps but then she stopped, the smile had vanished from her face.

'Maybe that was a little too harsh. They are just worried about their friend. I guess I'll go back there to tell them that this isn't all a plan to use Ichika, because it wasn't. That I have fee-' There it was again. She thought of this as an actual relationship, when this was just to help Chifuyu. Well, that was at least what it started as. She turned and started to walk back there, even though her mind was far away from Cecilia and Rin. She reached the row that they were at and with her head down to hide her embarrassment, said "Look guys Ichika isn't just a tool I'm using. He is-" She stopped herself to see their faces, only to realize that they had left. She must've missed them leaving when she thought of him. 'To think I was just about to do something like that.' She though. She let out a big sigh and sat down onto the bench in the row of lockers. "Ichika...why is this happening to me?"

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	3. Kinda

This chapter is a long one, lol. Anyway I hope you like it. DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Infinite Stratos (no matter how much I may want to) This chapter was written when episode 8 was released. Also when i put something in a single apostrophe like this: 'something' and it isn't inside a set of quotes, then I am signifying someones thoughts.

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"Whoa~!" Ichika exclaimed, while waking from his slumber. His torso shot up from the bed causing the bland, white covers to fly off him. "The Medical Ward…." He said to himself. "I wonder why I'm here. The last thing I remember is…..oh!" He remembered his kiss with Laura earlier. He turned bright red. His first kiss. Well, it was more like Laura shoving her tongue down his throat. Everyone had seen it. Houki, Cecilia, Charlotte, Rin. "Oh, they are going to pound me into the ground. Well, maybe not Charlotte." He said, sounding distressed. Speaking of Charlotte, he turned to his left to see Charlotte slumped in her chair, asleep. 'I guess I should wake her up' He looked at her to see that around her eyes were red. 'I wonder what that's about.'

"Oi, Charlotte." He said while reaching out to shake her shoulder.

"Huh….." she said drowsily. She rubbed her eyes and looked up to see the sunlight of the lowering sun beaming through with Ichika right in the center of it "Ahh….uhh…Nice to see you Ichika." He looked at her with a straight face when the corners of his mouth began to curl up

"Hahaha!" Ichika laughed.

"Uh-ah-errr-umm-" Charlotte stammered. She was so confused and embarrassed, she just put her hands over her face.

"'Nice to see you'"? Ichika said, still chuckling, "What a dorky thing to say; you could've just said hi or something. Don't be embarrassed though, Charlotte. It is one of the things that I love about you."

'Love!' she thought to herself. Her head quickly rose from her hands to look at him smiling at her.

"What time is it?" he asked her.

"It's…..Ahh!" she said looking at the clock. "5:00 p.m.? I must've slept through class. Chifuyu is gonna kill me."

"That goes for the both of us. Everyone must be in the dining hall for dinner. Come on, let's go." He shifted to the side of the bed with his legs touching the floor. He stood up and went to the door, holding it open for Charlotte. He looked at the lady in at the counter and said, "I'll probably see you soon, hehe." He ended with a chuckle. They began walking to the dining hall.

"See her soon?" Charlotte asked, puzzled.

"Once the other girls see me, especially Rin and Houki, I'm gonna get ripped a new one. I am not looking forward to that." They walked a little ways in silence

"So what is up with you and Laura?" the young french woman asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I hope by 'Wife' she just meant like, boyfriend."

"You hope to be her boyfriend?" she asked, taken aback.

"Errr, that came out wrong!" he said. "No I just mean, like….I don't know."

The hallway was so silent he could hear his heart beating. The tension could be cut with a butter knife.

"So, did you enjoy your first kiss?" Charlotte asked him.

"Ehhh?" he said, looking at her, his eyes widened.

'Oh, god, why did I just say that' Charlotte thought to herself. "That was a stupid question. What I meant was…..what I mean is…..ummmm I gotta go!" she exclaimed and sprinted back down the hallway toward the medical ward again, leaving a cloud of dust behind her.

"But the Dining hall is this way!" He tried to call down the hallway, but she didn't hear him. "That was weird." 'Did I like the kiss?' he thought to himself, trying to recall it from earlier today. He remembered her arm on his shoulder, pulling him in. Her warm lips on his. Her tongue on his. "Ugh….." he grunted. "Laura, what exactly do you want from me?" 'Well I guess I should go find her in the dining hall' he thought to himself. He picked up the pace and jogged down the empty halls and down the stairs to the mess hall. He quickly peered into the huge room to make sure none of the 3 girls he was scared of were near him. Once he decided he was clear, he stepped into the place casually, trying to spot silky, silver hair in the sea of girls' heads that was the dining hall.

"ICHIKA!" a voice called out from the side of the room as a girl stood up and pointed towards the door.

"Uh-oh!" he thought to himself

"ICHIKA!" repeated, but about one hundred times louder and of all different voices.

"AHH!" he said as he started to sprint out of her. The sound of the girls chasing after him was tremendous. It was like a herd of bulls chasing after him 'Why me?' he thought to himself as he was running for his dear life. 'Sometimes I have second thoughts about being the only male IS pilot' He ran up the stairs, holding on to the silver railing even though it slowed him down. It was better than tripping and falling and being trampled by his colleagues. He ran all the way back down the hall way, past the medical ward, and into the dorms. 'I should probably just jump in a room quick to lose them' He rounded a corner and tried a door. Of course it was locked. He ran to the other side and jiggled the knob. 'Open!' he thought to himself. He opened the door and leaped in. He closed the door quick and locked it, just in case they tried checking for open doors. "Thank you, open door. Huhh" he said, tired out and ended it with a sigh. He sank to the ground and sat against the door, leaning his head back onto the door.

"I-Ichika?" a voice said from in front of him. He looked up to see the one and only-

"Laura?" Ichika saw her face, she was slowly turning red. "I have to thank you for having your door open. I probably would be getting decimated if it wasn't for you. So thanks."

"Oh, well, you are welcome. It was the least I could do for what I've probably put you through." She said, embarrassed, but that was the thing about Ichika, she felt like she could be herself and it didn't matter; he wasn't about to judge her.

"Yeah." He said, "Why are you up here, shouldn't you be having your dinner?"

"I don't know. I'm not really hungry. IS training really tired me out today." I assumed you were passed out throughout the whole day of class, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't a big deal. I'll take any time off that I can." He ended with a smile. Ready to ask her the second biggest question on his mind, Ichika said, "Anyway what was that kiss and the thing about me being your 'wife' about?"

"Well Ichika," she started. She wasn't scared to see his reaction. She was going to go for it, no matter what. "You told me you were going to protect me. So I thought that I could return the favor."

"Return the favor?" he asked, confused. "I get what that means, but how were you returning the favor?"

"I am protecting you from the other girls. If they think you are taken, you guys can simply be friends, without all of the tension of being the only guy in the school."

"Oh," He said, he understood what she meant now. "I see. But there is just one problem with that." He got up and walked toward the bed she was sitting on. He sat next to her and looked at her.

"W-what is that?" she said, slightly flustered.

"You don't have to return the favor. I'm doing this as a friend to you."

"Oh," she said, sounding depressed. "As a friend, I get it." She looked down at her lap, realizing how stupid she was. He reached out his hand and put it on her chin. He moved her head softly so she was looking at him. By now, her face was bright red.

"Laura, you don't have to act embarrassed. You never really do in front of me. You act yourself, and that is why I'd like to be friends with you. You aren't going to be afraid to tell me something if you wanted to. That's one thing that I always notice with the other 3 girls, they always seem like they are hiding something from me, but you are different Laura, and I look forward to getting to know you. So keep your chin up. Remember, I will be here for you if you ever need me." He let go of her head, but she stayed staring at him. He gulped, hoping he didn't say the wrong thing or insinuate anything. 'Is she going to kiss me again?'

"Yes." She replied. 'Can she read minds? Is that what that eye is for?' Ichika panicked inside of his mind. She moved her head back to its original position, but still looking at him. "Friends, that sounds good. You will be my friend, not my bride!" She declared proudly. 'Phew' he sighed inside of his mind. 'I can be so foolish sometimes.'

"I'm glad you like the idea. Let's shake on it." He reached his hand out to hers. He would've gone for a high five, but Laura seems like a girl who would rather like a handshake. She extended her hand to his and grabbed it. Her hand was quite a bit smaller than his; she grabbed his nonetheless.

"Quite the change in character I see, I'm already glad I made my decision. But as far as the kiss went, how are we going to explain it to our classmates. Should we just say we are dating?" That last sentence made Laura's spirits rise.

"I'm alright with that. You'll actually be able to have some alone time now, without girls sucking up to you." She replied

"Yeah, it will be a nice break. Well I think I should get back to my room quick. I think I left my door unlocked." Ichika said, with a slightly dreading his journey back to his room. He wasn't even quite sure where he was.

"Then it has been decided. You are my boyfriend. Kinda." Laura said, looking at him, but putting on a stern face. "But if I ever need you, you better be there for me, okay?" He listened to her as he walked to the door.

"Of course," He said as he opened her door. "See ya!"He closed the door quietly.

"Oh Ichika…"She said as she fell back onto her bed "I'm glad we are going to be friends from now on." 'That's what I want right…..?' she thought to herself.

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He stood there for a couple seconds before he began to sprint back to his room. 'That went much differently than planned. Maybe I should take more chances with girls.' Ichika thought. 'But I guess now isn't the time for the biggest question on my mind. I have to focus on getting back to my room in one piece.' Ichika sprinted down the hallway to a staircase going upstairs. Running up the stairs, he thought, 'Laura really is a misunderstood girl. She comes off a harsh, but she really is nice. But what the hell am I going to do about Houki, Rin, and Cecilia? They better just accept the fact that me and Laura are dating and not make it into something else. Even worse, they could attack me again. If Laura wasn't there to save me, I would be dead right now. So I guess I do owe my life to her. I know! I can—" THUD! Ichika missed a step and fell right onto his face. "Guh!" He grunted as he got back on his feet and started to pick his speed back up when he reached the top of the stairs. 'I can think about this all I want when I get back to my room.' Since the floor he was on was a dorm floor, He quickly hugged the wall and peeked around the corner. He saw a girl with green hair ornaments which could only mean one think. Houki. 'Jeez, how am I going to do this?' He could see his room, but Houki was standing outside of his door. 'Well, I might as well make a run for it.' He sprinted towards his door, trying to stay as close to the wall as possible in hopes she wouldn't see him. He got up to the knob when she turned to look at him

"Ichika…" Houki said with a blank face. He was prepared for the worst. "May I come in for a few minutes?"

"Uhhhh," He said. He was positive she was going to confront him, not be formal and nice like this, "Yeah, of course."

He opened the door and motioned for her to go in. She walked in and looked around. It wasn't too long ago that they were rooming together. "Anyway, I'm here to….make sure you are ok."

"Oh, from passing out," he said, understanding what she meant. "I'm fine. I missed class all day today though."

"Yes, I noticed. You didn't miss anything really important." She reassured him.

"Well that's good." He replied. There was a sort of akward silence. They both had an idea about what the next thing they were gonna talk about was.

"So, what is going on between you and Laura?" She asked him. Ichika gulped. He knew that after he tells her this, it will spread everywhere by tomorrow.

"Laura and I?" Ichika said preparing for the worst. This will be the first it has been said out loud to someone else. "Yeah, we…we are going out." He quickly put his hands up to his face to block and incoming hits.

"I see." He heard her say. He put down his hands to see her just looking at him. "And you two have both agreed to this?"

"Yes, we have. No need to go seek her out and yell at her."

"Alright, well, I hope you two are happy together. I think you guys are kind of cute." She said walking to the door. Ichika began to blush. She opened the door. Right as she was about to leave,

"Hey Houki," He said happily, "Thank you for not making a big deal out of this."

"Don't worry, Ichika," she said, calmly, "I can't say the same thing for Rin and Cecilia however."

"I forgot about them. Are they mad at her or something?" He asked.

"Well they had some plan to figure out what you guys were and then to try to pull you guys apart because they think she is playing with you. They are wrong, right?"She asked her childhood friend.

"Of course they are. We wouldn't start something like this unless we were sure about everything."

"I'm glad. Oh, and next time you guys want to kiss, you should try to do it in a place more private." She ended with a laugh as closed his door. He turned red.

"At least Houki isn't mad at me. I wonder why not." He said to himself. He took off his shoes and laid on his bed. 'For how little I've been awake, today has felt like an eternity.' He rolled over and looked out of the window to his bedroom. The sun was beneath the mountains and it was dark. 'I better change now' He took off his uniform and put on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He laid down onto his bed when he started to think about who he could really talk to about all of this other than Laura, and who better than his own sister, Chifuyu, or Chifuyu-nee as he like to refer to her as even though she didn't want to be called that in school. He stood up from his bed and opened the door. 'Oh, where was her room again?' he thought to himself. 'It's probably on the top floor.' He began to walk up the stairs all the way to the top. He never really liked elevators, they just seemed so unreliable, plus it was a better way to get exercise, especially after sleeping all day. He kept just going up until he reached a door at the top of the stairwell. He opened it and was hit with a huge rush of cold air. "Whoops, looks like I went too high." He said to himself. He looked over to the railing to see someone standing there, just looking off into the distance. "Charlotte…." He said quietly to himself. He thought was just about to call out her name when he heard the clicking and clocking of heels back down the stairs.

'Chifuyu-nee!' he exclaimed in his mind. He immediately turned around to descend the stairs, closing the door behind him. The door got blown closed by the wind making a loud slam. This caused Charlotte to turn around to look at the door.

"Is someone there?" She asked to the door. No answer. She turned back around and looked off into the distance. She figured out that this was the direction back to her home, France or at least, where she came from. The IS academy has came to be her home. It wasn't since her mother that she was treated with such kindness and met such nice people. Sure, she did miss her home in a way, but she was definitely happy. The only obstacle in her way was Ichika. He was the only guys that she has really talked to and had fun with since her mom's passing, and she doesn't want that to end. Holding Ichika close is the only thing that she wants to accomplish, to make sure their friendship doesn't end or fade away. 'That's it. I have to talk Laura about Ichika. You are right Orimura-sensei, we have to be strong. No more tears will be shed.'

* * *

"Chifuyu-nee!" Ichika called out to his sister.

"Ichika…" she said quietly to herself. She turned around to look at him. "What is it that you need? Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ichika said. She was always worrying about him. She gave up a potential 1st place spot in an IS tournament to save him. It was also part of the reason why Laura was so harsh towards him when she first came here. "I'm fine. I just had something I wanted to talk to you about."

Chifuyu already had an idea what this was about. "Is that so?" she said unenthusiastically.

"I want to know more stuff about Laura." He said to her. She was going to send him back to his room, but they haven't talked sibling to sibling like this in a long time.

"Fine. Come in. I have a single room so there is no one else to worry about." She opened the door to her room gesturing for him to go in.

"Thanks sis!" he said with a big smile as he walked in.

"…." She was silent. She walked in and closed the door behind her. Ichika had already took the bed as a seat. Her room was significantly bigger than the regular dorms.

"This is a nice room you have here, sis." He said to her as she wheeled the chair from her desk over to the front of the bed so they could talk face to face.

"Where are in an institute, don't call me sis." She ordered him. "For this conversation you can just call me Chifuyu."

"Fine, Chifuyu-nee," he said, adding the suffix at the end meaning sister. 'I guess it is to no avail.' She thought to herself. "Now, you knew Laura pretty well when you were in Germany teaching. How is her true personality?"

"Her true personality?" Chifuyu said, not really expecting this to be the question he was going to ask. "Well, she always likes to be formal and can come off stern," 'Sounds like someone I know….' Ichika thought to himself. "But on the inside she is just a girl with a bad past. She was trained and even genetically altered to try to raise her skill for piloting the IS.

"Oh…" he said; he was starting to get why she was different from the other girls. "So her entire past has been about IS, she has been robbed of her childhood."

"Exactly. She has the eye patch on to hide her past; her one eye is that golden color because it is artificial. It works as a constant motion sensor. The plan was for her to be able to turn it on and off, but it didn't quite work right, so she uses the eye patch."

"…" Ichika was trying to put himself in Laura's position, which he found quite difficult.

"That's why she called you her bride, her entire childhood, adolescence and her beginning teen years have been all about becoming the perfect soldier, she doesn't know the workings of a friendship or a relationship. She didn't get to experience what you or I did. Friend was simply a word to her. That's why she looked up to me. She began to fall behind in IS skill to her peers, but I brought her back up to the top. That is why she strives to be exactly like me, even though she should just try to be herself." Chifuyu explained to Ichika. She missed just talking to Ichika; she hasn't just talked to him like this in a while.

"You got it Sis!" Ichika declared to her, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Ehh? What do you mean?" she asked him, slightly confused.

"I'll get her to try to just be herself," He reassured her. "That will be my promise to you!"

"Ha!" Chifuyu laughed, "And just how are you going to go about doing that."

"I mean, we are going out, I'll be able to spend plenty of time with her." Chifuyu looked at him with her eyes widened, slightly taken aback

"You two are going out?" She asked him. 'They are kind of cute together.' She thought to herself.

"Well, kinda," he told her, ready to explain the situation. "When I cut her out of that thing that took over her IS, I told her that I would always protect her. So to make it up to me, she wants it to make it look like we are going out so she can 'protect' me from all of the girls and so I can just have some time to myself. But now, thanks to you Chifuyu-nee, I am going to spend more time with her. Before too long, she will be a regular 15-year-old."

"Good luck," she told him. "It won't be easy."

"I'm ready for it. I'm the only male IS pilot, I think easy is out of the question from now on." He chuckled. "By the way Chifuyu-nee, why are you still in your work clothes, it is really late, shouldn't you be sleeping or something?" Her work clothes consisted of a white shirt with a tie under a black overcoat, with a black skirt and black stockings.

"I have a lot of things to do nowadays. " She said, thickly, "The only way to get good results is to put in all the work."

"Then I'll put the work in for Laura, to get a good result, right?"

"Sure Ichika, try your best." She said, she often enjoyed how much he underestimated things. He got up and started to walk to the door to go back to his room.

"Ichika," she said nicely. He turned around to look at her from in front of the door. "Thank you for trying to give her a normal life. She is really a misunderstood woman. I hope you like what you find."

"I'm up to the task. Well, it has been nice talking with you Chifuyu, we need to do this more often you know." He said to her "Anyway, see you tomorrow in class, Chifuyu-nee~" he said as he closed the door and began his walk back to his room. Chifuyu sighed.

"Good luck Ichika, I believe you can do it." Chifuyu said.

* * *

Laura laid in her bed, trying to sleep. She looked over to see that her roommate still wasn't back yet. 'I probably scared off. She hasn't slept here in quite a while.' She thought to herself. She turned back at the ceiling. "Ichika, am I really someone you want to be with?" she asked herself out loud. 'But I guess we really aren't dating.' She pulled the covers off of her to reveal her white, baggy, two piece pajamas she was wearing. The sleeves went past her hands and she had to cuff it a bunch of times at the bottom so she could walk regularly without tripping. She grabbed the pillow from the other bed and laid back down into hers. She pulled the covers back over herself and held the pillow close to her face. "Ichika."

* * *

Please Review!


	4. Unique

Phew. Chapter 4 is done. It took a little while to get ideas and how to plan everything out, but next chapter will hopefully be released a little quicker. Anyway, I hope you like it!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters.

* * *

Ichika opened his eyes. It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the light. The morning sun shined brightly through the window in his room. He threw the covers off of him and sat up. He was wide awake already. 'What a good night sleep!' he thought happily. 'I got to talk to talk to Chifuyu-nee on equal levels which was the first time in a while. Plus Laura and I are going out. Well, not really but that's how everyone will see it today.' His stomache sunk slightly. How were Rin and Cecilia going to react to this news? Maybe they knew already and they were plotting some evil plan against him. 'I'm not going to let that get me down today.' He thought to himself. He walked into the bath room and turned on the shower head. 'Today is going to be a good day.' He kept repeating that to himself as he undressed and stepped in the shower.

He remembered how he first saw Charlotte, then Charles, in the shower and how she was really tricking everyone. And to think he changed in front of her so many times. His face turned a little red. 'What's done is done. No sense on dwelling on the past.' He made a mental note of that phrase. He was sure to use it for Laura if she was having trouble learning new ways because of her military background. He washed himself and stepped out of the shower, quickly grabbing a towel to shield himself from the cold air in the bathroom. He dried himself and quickly changed into his school uniform for the day. "No passing out today." He told himself. He looked back out the window at the glaring sun high in the sky. "Brand new day." He said. He realized that his window was the exact direction that he saw Charlotte looking out to last night. 'I should go talk to her about that later, but first, I have to start fulfilling my promise to Chifuyu-nee.' He quickly put on and tied his shoes. He smiled while he was tying them because he remembered how Houki used to have to tie his shoes in grade school. 'I have to thank her to for being on my side in this whole situation. Jeez, I have a lot to do today.'

He walked over and opened his door, closing it quietly because he got up a little earlier today and he didn't want to disturb anyone. He wanted to get ready to see Laura before they both had to go to the Class 1 classroom. He tried to recall the events that happened last night so he could remember where her room was. He should probably remember something like that from now on. He walked down the stairs back to the floor of the Medical Ward. 'Alright, I know her room is somewhere on this floor. He kept walking until he reached the Medical Ward counter.

"Good morning, Ichika Orimura." The lady said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." 'For now' he thought to himself. "Just trying to remember where something was." He doubled back towards the first hallway of rooms. He knew that it was the first room on the left of the hallway. He walked up to the door. If this was any other girls' room he would be having second thoughts right now, but not with Laura. He knew that he had to be confident when dealing with her, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

* * *

Laura rolled over and her face went right into a pillow, cutting off her breathing. She quickly woke up and shoved herself up from the bed, taking in a deep breath. 'What a pleasant way to wake up." She thought, sarcastically. She turned her head and squinted as she waited for her eye to adjust to the light. She looked down at a pillow right near the side of her bed that had some drool stains on it from the last night. She felt a little embarrassed once she realized that happened. She picked up the pillow and flipped it over to the other side. She hugged the pillow and said to herself, "Good morning, Ichika."

"How did you know I was here?" she heard from the other side of her door.

"I-Ichika! Uhhh, what are you doing here?" she asked quickly, thanking the gods that Ichika had not seen what she was doing.

"I wanted to stop by before school started. You know, like people going out do." He replied. Going out. These words were new to Laura, the first time she had heard them was yesterday when Ichika used them. "Could I come in?" he asked her.

"Sure," she said, throwing the pillow across the room, to hide it from his vision. "Just next time, alert me before hand before you just come here uninvited." She said sternly. Ichika normally would've been more startled, but he knew that this was just how Laura is, and he wasn't going to change that. What he _was _going to change was her social personality; he was going to teach her what she had missed out on. She opened the door to see him with a smile on.

"Sorry, I'll be sure to remember that next time." He told her happily. Her cheeks began to show some color. "May I come in?"

"Yes, but take your shoes off at the door." She told him.

"You got it." He said He untied his shoes and left them on the mat on the inside of her door. "Where is your roommate?" he asked her.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I think I scared her away. I can be pretty intimidating to people who don't know."She told him.

"Which is why I want to get to know you." He said to her. "I'm sure there is more to you. I already know Rin and Houki pretty well, Charlotte too. Cecilia I think I have figured out. But you are the one I want to get to know better."

"Why is that?" She asked, very interested.

"Well you are good friends with Chifuyu-nee, which means you are a good friend of mine. Besides, I…" he drifted off.

"F-finish that sentence!" she commanded him 'What could he possibly be thinking…?' she thought to herself.

"Well, I think you are different, you are unique. There are plenty of girls like Houki and Cecilia and everyone else, but you are one of a kind."

* * *

It was cold. It was always cold there. Sure she had a bed to sleep in, but this wasn't how someone should be treated. An ten year old Laura tossed and turned in her bed. There were no windows; there were no lights. The logic was "The only way you can be strong is to live like a soldier, to act like a soldier, and to fight like a soldier" and soldiers didn't have anything to pamper them. They didn't have any luxuries, or at least, that's what she was told. She sat up from her bed to reveal a gray IS combat uniform, exactly like the one she uses today. "She must feel one with her uniform" was another thing they told her keep her in line, what they told her to produce the most perfect uniform. She began to walk over to the door they used to lock her in this prison. Her bare feet felt numb on the freezing metal floor. She reached the door and pulled a metal wire out of her gray leg stocking. She stuck into the lock until she heard it snag and the lock switch fall to the open position. She carefully opened the door to reveal a pitch-black hallway, no different from her room. She felt the walls with her hands to make sure she knew where she was going. She fell to her knees in pain as she grabbed her face. Her left eye was hurting again. 'My left eye hurts so badly, and I have no idea why.' She had an eye patch over it, she was told not to remove it and if she even tried, they would know and the consequences would be dire. The fact that she had an artificial eye was kept a secret from her. Once the pain was manageable, she got back up to her feet and started walking, wincing in the pain her eye has given her

She could see a light at the end of the hallway. She sidled across the wall until she was right next to the room giving off the light. She often did this, to listen what the women were talking about.

"Let's, move on to subject number 50, Laura Bodewig. Her immediate recover from her operation was certainly surprising. We suspected it would take a full year for her enhanced eye to start working, but in the test we did, it was working only after 2 months." A woman with a deep voice said.

"Yes, It was quite the surprise, hehe." a woman with a sinister sounding voice said, ending it with a chuckle.

"There is but one problem," The one with the deep voice said again, "The ability for her to control it failed. It always is on."

"So she is a failure too? How depressing..." The sinister woman said again.

"Jumping to conclusions would be not ideal. We should just try to give it some time; maybe she will gain the ability." A woman with a soothing, soft voice said.

"That would normally be the case, but we connected this eye directly with a part of her brain and we had a switch that should've been able to turn it on and off. It was unresponsive." The deep voiced woman said. 'My eye?' She thought, alarmed. 'They gave me an artificial eye?"

"Damn it! More wasted money and technology on a stupid girl. I'm telling you, give someone like me the eye, I can make it work!"A new woman with a harsh, loud voice shouted.

"Please," said the woman with the soft voice, "An operation like that on an adult is too much. It has to be done on a child, their bodies are always changing and adapting to things." Laura felt her eye patch. 'Should I take it off? 'she thought to herself.

"While she may be a failure, we should keep her and keep training her for IS combat. Her potential is massive."

"And have her what, wear an eye patch like that all of the time?" The loud woman said again. "Not only will she be looked at as a failure from everyone else, but so will we! She should be disposed of like the rest."

"Out of the question." The woman with the soft voice said. "We will keep her here and her training will continue as usual."

"Who died and made you Queen?" The loud woman screamed at her, jumping out of her chair making it fall over. "She is a waste of time! She is just like all of the others, trash ready to be thrown out!" '…..Trash….' She thought solemnly to herself

"The same could be said about you." The woman with the soft voice said.

"Why you….!" She screamed at her.

"Everyone just relax. We wouldn't want anything getting out of hand, now would we?" The woman with the sinister voice said, almost as if she was joking.

"She is right." The original woman with the deep voice said "Let's move on." Laura felt her eye patch. She could feel a cold, solid eye behind it. Her hand was trembling horribly. 'Should I take it off? What will they do to me?'

"Yeah that's right," The woman with the loud voice said. "Maybe the next one won't be as much of a waste as the other one." The young Laura clenched her jaw. She curled her fingers behind the eye patch. It was too late to turn back now. She ripped it off with all of her might. She felt the eye that had been giving her so much pain. She didn't even have to close her eyelid to feel it, for something that hurt so much, she could feel it with no reaction. It was freezing, like the floor. The vision out of the eye had a yellow tint to it.

"What!" the woman with the deep voice said, taking a beeper like device out from her pocket. "Laura has taken off her eye patch." Permanent damage could be sustained if it is used while she is still conscious." 'They know?' She thought to herself in a panic. She quickly turned around and began running back to her room.

"How exciting, haha~" The woman with the sinister voice said.

"I can go handle this." The woman with the loud voice said, but the woman with the soft voice rose from her seat.

"This is my job. I will handle her." She said.

"Not so fast. I don't want any funny business." The loud woman said. "I will go with you."

"Fine, let's hurry though." The two women jogged out into the opening. The one with the soft voice had long silver hair, and the loud one had short black hair. They both wore bland, black military uniforms. They ran through the pitch black with no visibility hallway, until the loud woman ran right into a large metal door. Her face hit the door first as she bounced back right onto her behind.

"What the hell?" she screamed, holding her nose.

"This is Laura's room. The door must've been unlocked and she opened it. Quick, we must make sure that she is still in here. If she gets out to another wing with that eye exposed, we will be disgraced." The two women walked into the room and looked at Laura. Despite the room being barely visible, her new eye could see everything. A series of numbers and circles came up when the women entered her sight.

"What is happening to me!" She demanded to know from them

"It's alright Laura I just need you to-"

"You little shit!" The woman screamed at her. "What do you think you are doing opening the door and taking off your eye patch when we ordered you not to!"

"That's enough." The woman with the soft voice said.

"Did we raise you to be a disobedient little juvenile? No we didn't! You are lucky we don't dispose of you right now, you worthless little drone! You're nothing but a typical disappointment!" she said, screaming at her, grabbing her by the arm. Laura's eyes went from wide opened and filled with tears, to closed. She had lost consciousness.

"I said," the woman with the soft voice said, raising her voice, "_that's enough!" _She shrieked at her. She grabbed the woman by the back of her shirt and slammed her into the hard metal wall.

"Ouch…" The loud woman said, on her knees and clutching her shoulder that had just been smashed, "Who do you think you are?" she yelled at her.

"Your superior." She said, back in her normal voice. "Now go back to our conference room before I show you my real wrath."

"…Fine." She complied. She rose to her feet and walked out of the room. The quiet woman waited until she couldn't hear her footsteps echoing anymore.

"Are you alright, Laura?" she asked her. She knew she was unconscious. She rested Laura's head on the pillow and pulled the covers over her. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and kissed her on the forehead. "You may not know it now, and you may never know it, but I want you to know that your mother is proud of you and the effort you have been putting in. You are one of a kind." She walked out of the room and shut the door behind her.

* * *

"Well, I think you are different, you are unique. There are plenty of girls like Houki and Cecilia and everyone else, but you are one of a kind." Ichika had said. Laura's arms instantaneously wrapped around Ichika's torso, her head buried into his left shoulder. "L-Laura? Are you alright?" he said, slightly alarmed. A tear fell from her right eye and fell onto his shoulder.

"I'm fine." She said, sniffling. "It's just…..no one has ever been so nice to me or have had more belief in me." All of Ichika's awkwardness had been washed away and his confidence had taken over. His left arm had wrapped her upper torso and his right hand on the back of her head. 'She is just a misunderstood girl, which is what Chifuyu-nee told me. I must be strong, for Laura.' He thought to himself.

"People would be nicer to you if you didn't seem so closed off, and I am here to help you with that. But first," he said, trying to lift her spirits. He wiped the tears from her eye and cheek. "We need to get ready to go to class, we have plenty of time, but we should get your mind off this subject of your past."

"You are right." Laura said, still sniffling. "I'm going to go take a shower and clean myself up. You will be here when I get out right?"

"I wouldn't think of leaving." He said while lying down on her bed, "Take your time."

"…Thank you, Ichika. I'll be right out." She entered the bathroom while wiping her eye from the tears.

"Hmmmm" he exhaled. 'Will it even be possible to change a girl like this? She obviously has been through more trauma than I could even imagine. Well, I guess I'm already knee deep in it already. No turning back. I wouldn't be able to even relate myself to Chifuyu-nee if I did.' He closed his eyes to catch up on some sleep he missed out on last night while he was with Chifuyu. He slowly drifted off to dreamland.

* * *

"I-Ichika. I'm out now." She shook him awake.

He opened his eyes to see Laura's face staring down at him. Her hair was so soaking wet, it was dripping water all over his face. His first site being Laura eased his transition back to reality. "I didn't take too long, did I?" she asked him. He let out a big yawn.

"No, I was just up a little later than I should've last night." He said, still tired.

Oh, alright." She said, sitting down in a chair facing a mirror. She plugged in a hair dryer and began to dry her hair. Ichika looked at her and said,

"Is it really worth the time and effort girls put in to look good in the morning?"

"Since you are a guy, I don't really think you have the right to criticize us for looking good." She replied, confused.

"Yea," He got up and stood right next to her, looking at the mirror. "But just look at all of your hair, it must take a while."

"It's an obligation for girls to do everything in their power to look good." 'How does she say all of this? Chifuyu-nee said her entire past was about IS training. Maybe it is just an instinct type thing.' He thought to himself.

"I guess so; I'll leave you alone. Besides, I have a surprise planned for you later today." He told her with a smile.

"A surprise?" She asked him, confused. "What kind of surprise?"

"I can' tell you," he teased her, "If I did, then it wouldn't be a surprise. We will have some fun, trust me on this one." He walked into her bathroom and closed the door.

'He has a surprise planned for _us_,' She thought to herself, still blow-drying her hair. "What could this possibly be? Are we going to kiss again? Is he going to…confess his love to me?' This very thought made her bright red. All of this thinking made her lose her focus and her hair-dryer accidentally rested on the top of her head, which was of course, very hot.

"OUCH!"She yelped.

"Are you alright?" She could hear faintly from her bathroom.

"Yeah yeah, I'm alright." She said, embarrassed. 'Why were all these thoughts in my head related to our relationship? Maybe it's something just normal.' Her hopes slowly sank. Her hair was dried by now and she began to brush her illustrious silver hair. She heard the bathroom door open. She kept her eyes fixated on the mirror. He walked over to the mirror with her.

"I love your hair color; I haven't seen anyone else with a color like this." Laura finally had her hair finished.

"Finally done. You like it?" She asked with some color in her cheeks.

"Of course I like it." He told her.

'Thank god' She thought to herself. "We should start going to class," she told him, ignoring his comment. "I am never late."

"Sure, let's leave now." The pair walked to the door and she opened the door to let Ichika out first. They stood in the hallway as she locked her door.

"You keep your door locked?" He asked her. "I never do. Make sure you remember that."

"I think I will." She said. The two walked in silence until she said, "Ichika, thank you for doing all of this for me."

"Please," he told her, "It is my pleasure. I've been getting to know you better and that is enough for me. I know the other girls so well, I'm just glad I got to know you too."

"Hold on one second." She stopped walking.

"What is it?" he asked her. She jumped up onto her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek. "Uh~" he said in confusion. His face was bright red. Laura was avoiding eye contact with him; she was slightly red herself.

"From when I slapped you when we first met." Ichika recalled to when they first met. She had slapped him and declared that she would not accept that he was _her_ brother. She was referring to Chifuyu. "I never apologized or anything, but I think that that will suffice."

"Apology accepted." He told her. He smiled at her. The duo walked to the classroom entrance. Laura quickly grabbed Ichika's hand.

"Laura?" He asked her inquisitively.

"If we are going out, then we must hold hands." She told him

"I guess you are right. That's what we want them to think right?" He fixed his hands so that their fingers were interlocking. 'Success!' she thought to herself. "Are you ready?"

"Let's go." She said, as the two pushed the door open, ready to face everyone else who tried to stop them.

* * *

Please Review!


	5. The Surprise

Chapter 5 is done. A bunch of writing done today, but it was worth it! Quickly, as far as Laura calling Ichika her wife, that is the direct translation because she uses the word "Yome" which means wife or bride, not just a word for spouse, at the end of episode 8 and again at the beginning of episode 9. Some of the fansubs just changed it to make it less confusing or something. Also, I really hope I'm not the only one who doesn't like the direction Laura is going in in the anime. Well, I won't keep you here anymore, enjoy the chapter! DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or and of it's characters.

* * *

The door was flung open. The sunlight from the huge windows shone on the two young IS pilots, hand in hand. Everyone's heads were turned; all attention was on them. A veil of silence was draped upon the class. The couple walked across the front of the room. The silence was slowly starting to dissipate, whispers could be heard all around. Ichika sat in his seat in the front row. This was new to him; not getting hoarded by the girls when he walked in, he could just mind his own business. Laura stood next to his desk and said quietly,

"So, how do you like it?"

"I really didn't think this would work," He said truthfully, "But I guess it did. Thanks."

"You're welcome." She said, smiling.

"Oh, and remember, try not to plan anything for later today." He asked her.

"Why….?" She asked. She then remembered about his surprise. "Oh, alright. I'll see you later then." She walked away to her desk near the back of the room. He looked back at her to see she was already being swarmed by girls with questions and what not. 'I guess it couldn't be helped.' He though, chuckling to himself.

"Good morning Ichika." a familiar voice said. Ichika turned his head to reveal Houki standing next to him.

"Ahh, Houki, what's up?" He asked her.

"Nothing new for me, but for you," she started to say to him, "I assume everyone knows about you and Laura?"

"It would seem so. It doesn't really matter. I'm sure she can take the gossip and she can certainly take care of herself." He told her. Just then Cecilia walked in, passing Ichika's desk.

"Hey Cecilia." He greeted her.

"Hmm!" she grunted as she turned her head away from him. Houki looked at her in disapproval.

"Don't mind her, Ichika. I'm happy for you two. Rin probably won't even enter the classroom because of the news, that brat."

"It's fine. I'm just going to leave her alone. Hopefully she will warm up to us eventually." He told her.

"Well, if you are fine with it," she told him. "I'll leave her alone, but you say the word and she will have a change of heart, let me assure you."

"Haha, alright Houki." He laughed at her. Her cheeks had a reddish hue.

"J-Just what exactly is so funny?" She yelled at him.

"You haven't changed a bit from back in elementary school. It's just funny." He told her, still grinning.

"Whatever, so much for trying to help you." She walked over to her desk on the far left of the room. 'I hope she isn't mad.' He thought to himself.

* * *

Charlotte walked out into the hallway and closed her door, all dressed and ready for class. "Phew~" she sighed as she began to walk to class. 'Alright, time to go to class.' She thought to herself. She started to descend from the stairs to the classroom. 'I have to talk to Laura sometime today about Ichika. She thinks that she can just come in and take him from me. I have to follow Chifuyu's advice, that's the only way I will be able to prevail.' She thought enthusiastically. She got one turn away from the class room when she heard two girls talking.

"You heard about Ichika and Laura right?" the one girl asked the other. Charlotte stopped at the corner to listen in on their conversation. She cupped her hand around her ear to hear them better

"The kiss? I was there." The other replied.

"No, I heard that they are going out." She told her.

"What? No way, Ichika wouldn't limit himself to just one girl. Who did you hear it from?" she asked the other, trying to disprove her theory.

"Houki told me, and they were friends outside of the academy. They probably talk about everything." Charlotte's hand dropped to her side. She was too late. 'No…' She thought to herself, sadly. She wished it was not true, but deep down she knew that it was the truth. 'I'm too late. Ichika has consented to date her. It's over.' She sank to the ground and buried her head into her knees.

"Crying again so soon?" A woman asked her. She recognized this voice to be Chifuyu's.

"No, I'm okay." She told her. It was evident she was lying.

"I'm your teacher. You should never try to hide things from us or lie to us, especially to our faces. Come on, get up." She grabbed her arms and brought her up to her feet. "I'm sure this is about Ichika and Laura,-"

"So it is true?" Charlotte cut her off, looking down at her feet.

"Yes, they are going out, but that is no reason to be distraught. Ichika will still be friends with you. It's not like the only person he is ever going to talk to now is Laura." She told her, trying to be understanding. "Now follow me, class is starting. It will be something to keep your mind off of this. Remember, no more crying."

"Yes, ma'am." She replied, unconvinced.

"Ugh." Chifuyu grunted. 'Why do girls of this age have to be so dependant of boys? It's almost as if the girl here only to impress Ichika, not train their IS skills.' She thought to herself. She followed Charlotte, who was dragging her feet, into the classroom.

"Good morning class. Everyone, take your seats. Today's lessons will start immediately after attendance." Chifuyu said to the class. Charlotte passed Ichika's seat. He smiled and waved to her, but she was unresponsive. She was still watching her feet drag across the floor. 'Hmmmm.' He thought to himself. 'I wonder what is going on with her.' The class day went on as normal. Everyone minded their own business.

* * *

The bell rang around two in the afternoon and class was dismissed. Ichika reached the door before any of the main girls. He wanted to wait for Laura so he could talk to her about the surprise. Cecilia left the room first, giving Ichika the cold shoulder yet again. Charlotte left after her and stopped to talk to Ichika.

"Ichika, do you know where I could find Laura?" she asked him, skipping the pleasantries and greetings.

"She should be leaving the room soon, but I was going to do something with her. Sorry. You could probably find her in her room later tonight." He told her.

"Oh, okay." She said. She turned her back to him and started to walk away.

"Uhh, I can do it later, it is no big deal." He called out to her. She just kept walking, like a drone. "Charlotte!" he tried calling out to her again. Same response.

"Why is she like this? I thought she would be the most enthusiastic about this relationship. Maybe…." He thought to himself and then drifted off.

"Good class today, right Ichika?" he heard Houki's voice ask him.

"Yeah, sure. I didn't really understand some of it though." He told her, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, if you have any questions, you can always ask me." She told him. "Well, good bye. Tell Laura I said hi." She walked off. Ichika couldn't help but look at her legs as she was walking away. He always liked how Houki wore her boots with the above the knee socks. He quickly looked away once he realized what he was doing. Once he did he saw Cecilia walk past him, giving him the cold shoulder again. He wasn't even going to waste his time trying to talk to her when he knew that she was just going to ignore him. He looked back at the flood of girls leaving the room, until he spotted Laura. He smiled at just the sight of her.

"Oi, Laura." He called out to her. "Come over here."

She walked up to him, confused. "What's going on?" she asked him.

"I'm sure you want to know what this surprise is." He assumed.

"Actually, I kind of forgot." She looked at him. She thought that giving him an innocent smile he would forgive her. She was right.

"You really are starting to fit in here. Just think how different you were when you came here, now you know how to play me for the fool I am." He told her.

"Fool?" she asked him, not quite understanding what he meant.

"Never mind." He told her. "So you want to know the surprise is, right?"

"Of course." She told him.

"Alright, I'll need you to go back to your room quick though. I'll have to stop at my room as well." He told her.

"For what?" she asked him, slightly panicking. 'Why does he need me to go back to my room? Does he want to do something in private?' She was freaking out in her mind.

"For what we are doing, I think if we both dressed into something more casual, it would be more relaxed. Do you have some casual clothes? I don't know if when you were sent here if you have any."

"Err-uhh-umm," she stuttered. "Yes, I have some clothes like that that my advisors sent me with. So you want me to go change into some different clothes and then meet up somewhere?"

"Exactly. Would outside the academy's entrance be alright?" He asked her

'Are we going somewhere? Is he whisking me away to somewhere!' "Uhhh sure. Are-"

"Alright, See you then!" He walked away from her and proceeded to turn the corner to the stairwell leading to his room. He walked up the stairs and got to the turn near his room when he stopped to think. 'Girls always take a while to get ready, Laura told me that. I should go try to catch Charlotte real quick. I think her new room is the last room at the end of this hallway. He walked past the turn to his room and got to Charlotte's door. He knocked twice and waited for a reply. Nothing. 'Maybe she is down at the cafeteria.' He thought. He walked all the way back to the staircase to hear someone ascending to the next floor. He looked up to see tiny white and red sneakers. 'Charlotte's.' He figured.

He went up the two floors up to the same door he was confronted with last night. He pushed the door open and saw that his assumption was true. Charlotte was in the same position she was last night, looking off into the distance.

"Charlotte?" he asked, even though he knew that it was her.

"Oh, Ichika. What are you doing here?" she asked apathetically. She wasn't surprised that he had found her here. She had her own suspicions that it was him who saw her up here last night.

"I wanted to talk to you. I checked your room for you, but when there was no answer so I was going to check the first floor, but I thought I saw you come up here. What is wrong? You seem a little different today." He asked her, worried. He walked up to her side.

"Charles," he said, the name slipped. "I was roomed with you for quite a while. Please don't lie to me. Is this about Laura?" He wasn't going to beat around the bush. He had to go meet the aforementioned lady soon.

"Laura? Of course not. I'm happ-" She started to reply. Ichika wrapped his arms around her.

"Charlotte. You can tell me the truth I won't be mad at you and I won't think any less than you. If anything, lying would be the last thing I wanted you to do." He told her straight. He could see her eyes filling up with tears. 'Why do girls always cry with me….? Ehhhh I don't mind.'

"It's just," she said, stopping to sniffle, "You being with her is taking you away from me. You were the one who gave me this confidence. I don't want you to leave me."

"Leave you?" He asked, "I'll always be here. I told you we will think up of a plan once you graduate, everything will be okay. You won't be alone."

"No, I know that. It's just that," she told him, mentally preparing himself. "Ichika, you are the only boy that I ever have opened up to. You are special to me."

"Charlotte, please believe me when I say you won't drift away from me. Besides, Laura and I aren-" He cut himself off. His eyes drifted off down to the entrance. He could see a speck of silver hair sparkling in the setting sun. "Oh crap, look Charlotte, I have to go quick, but we will talk about this later. Try not to cry anymore Charlotte; it breaks my heart to see you sad." He quickly ran back to the door and ran back down the stairs. She watched the door slowly shut, clicking once it closed. She was sick of being told not to cry. This time she was just going to cry because now, all there was left to do was cry.

* * *

"Gotta get back to my room!" He told himself. He sprinted down the stairs, hoping he wouldn't trip and fall. 'I really hope she doesn't think I'm blowing her off.' He thought to himself. He got to his hallway and saw Laura knocking on his door. 'Why me?' he thought to himself, 'What did I do to deserve this? I hope she isn't mad at me; the last thing I need is another girl mad at me.' He was still running down the hallway to her. She turned her head to see him. The second she did he slowed to a walk.

"Hey Laura, what's going on?" he tried to say casually, even though he was out of breath.

"Uhhh, nothing." She said looking at him, seeing that he is still in the school uniform. "I tried to get ready a little quicker because I you said that girls tend to take a long time." Ichika looked at her up and down. She was wearing a black skirt that ended a little above her knees with a modest black tank top and black high top sneakers. Her hair was back in a pony tail but her bangs were still in her face

"Whoa…" Ichika muttered quietly to himself, completely tuning out Laura.

"Ichika!" she yelled at him, snapping her fingers in his face. "W-what are you looking at?" she said, blushing.

"Uhmmm," Ichika said, scratching his cheek with one finger. "Nothing. I like your choice of clothes."

"Really!" she said happily, but then pulled it back. "I thought you would like it. Speaking of clothes, you are still in your uniform."

"Oh yeah, I got somewhat side tracked. I was talking to Charlotte," he told her, trying to not make it sound like he blew her off. 'Talking to another girl! Maybe he doesn't feel the same way I feel to him…' she thought to herself, "She told me she wanted to talk to you earlier and I wanted to see why." He just remembered that now. 'I forgot to ask her why.'

"Oh, and?" she asked him.

"Well," he said, trying to come up with an excuse, "I realized that I had to get going so I left before I got an answer." 'He just left her for me? How romantic!' She thought to herself. 'Wait, we aren't really going out, or are we? Did he just agree to this because he was too afraid to ask me?' She snapped back to reality.

"Well, I'll wait for you to change." She told him.

"Ehh, I might just go in this if it is alright with you." He said to her. She kinda wanted to see him in something different, but she didn't want to ask him.

"Sure, it's fine." She told him. "Well, let's walk to the entrance then." She grabbed his hand. He looked at her with a puzzled look. "We are supposed to be going out, remember?"

"Of course I remember." He said, fixing his hand with hers like last time.

"Now where are we going?" she asked him anxiously.

"I guess I can tell you now." He said to her as they started walking to back to the entrance. "I found this nice place out near the shore that I thought we could go to, to just get away from the academy and talk for a little while."

"Like a date?" she asked him, hopefully.

"Sure, we can call it a date." He told her. Saying the words made his face turn a little red. The duo reached the entrance and began to walk down the path leaving the academy.

* * *

"You should have seen it this morning. I just completely ignored him." Cecilia said to Rin, the two walking in the hallway.

"I wish I was there to see the stupid look on his stupid face." Rin said, mad at him for being with Laura. "We still need to come up with a plan to get back at them."

"Wait, " Cecilia exclaimed, "Look outside quick! It's Laura and Ichika, and they are _HOLDING HANDS!"_

Rin jumped over to the window at lightning speed to see if what her friend said was true. "Oh, I am going to rip him in half." Rin said, getting ready to get in Jialong, her IS.

"Wait Rin, I have a better idea." Cecilia said, as if she had a plan. "Let's go and follow them, get information, you know? Then we can figure out what we can do for revenge."

"…..Yea, that is a good plan." Rin said, wishing she came up with it. "Let's hurry, we can't let them get away." They both rushed downstairs and out the front doors quick, as to not lose their trail. The pair spotted them going down a side path to the shore.

"There. They went down there." Cecilia said, trying to keep her voice down as to not let them know they were there.

"We aren't going to let you guys get away!" Rin shouted. Cecilia put her hand over Rin's mouth to shut her up.

* * *

"What was that?" Laura asked, looking around.

"Who knows?" Ichika said. "Come on, we are almost there." They were pushing away some of the brush that was in the small forest they had to traverse through.

"This is really far out. How did you find where ever we are going?" she asked him, interested.

"Well I was trying to hide from Houki one day because she wanted to train more but I was absolutely wiped, and eventually I just came across here." He told her. They could see the clearing. The couple pushed through the last few branches.

Laura gasped dramatically, putting her unoccupied hand on her chest. They reached a cement dock with a bench near the edge. The bright orange sun was halfway down the horizon. It reflected off the water giving it an orange hue, making it sparkle beautiful colors. "Oh my goodness!" She said, flabbergasted. "This is so beautiful."

"Yeah, that's why I wanted to come here after school, to see the sun setting here." He told her. He walked her over to the bench and the two sat down. The spying girls hid in the foliage behind them.

"How romantic!" Cecilia exclaimed when she saw the view.

"Why couldn't Ichika take me to a place like this!" Rin said angrily.

"Shhhh." Cecilia shushed the representative of China. "Let's listen."

"So Laura," He asked her in a calm voice. "I thought that today was pretty good. Not as much drama as I would've expected."

"Maybe for you." She told him. He remembered how she was swarmed with girls once she sat down. "They were asking me all these things about you. 'What is Ichika's favorite color, What is Ichika's favorite food, Is Ichika a good kisser.' Stuff like that."

"How do they know what we kissed?" he asked her. She turned her head and looked at him with a facial expression that just screamed 'Are you serious?' He remembered the kiss the two shared back then in the middle of the classroom. He blushed a little. "Oh yeah. That." The silence was as awkward as can be.

"Does that really count as a first kiss?" she asked him. "I just kind of went for it. Sorry about that."

"I-it's no problem." He stuttered, being careful of his word choice. "It was interesting to say the least. Would you…..uhhh."

"Would I what?" she asked him. She noticed that he had a habit of doing stuff like this.

'Just say it; don't be a baby.' He thought to himself, trying to encourage himself. 'If Laura had enough courage to just do something she wants, I can.' He closed his eyes and said in a confident voice, "Would you like to share another, a more appropriate one?" She was quiet. He opened one eye and looked at her. She was as red as a strawberry.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking down at her feet.

"Y-yeah. I'm positive." He replied. She closed her eyes and grabbed his hand. He looked at her soft, glossy lips. He closed his eyes and started to move in.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Rin screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping up from her crouching position. Cecilia quickly jumped up and grabbed her mouth, pulling her back down to the ground. The couple quickly turned to the brush, trying to figure out what that noise was.

"What was that?" Laura asked him. "Is someone spying on us!" she shrieked, ready to kick some butt.

"It was probably a bird or something." He said, reassuring her. "Now, where were we?"

"Hold on Ichika." She told him. "Let's just take it slow. I mean we aren't really….you know."

"They aren't what?" Rin said to Cecilia. Cecilia shrugged at her.

"Yeah," he said, slightly depressed. "I guess you are right."

"Well," Laura said, gulping and hoping he was going to agree with her. "Unless you think we should really go out."

"Huh?" he said. He really heard her; he was just considering the proposal.

"Errr, never mind." She said shaking her head. "Nothing."

"No, I heard you." He said looking at her. She turned to look right back at him. "Laura, over these past two days, I've really started to develop some feelings." He said, feeling slightly stupid.

"The thing is," She told him. "So have I. You just, feel right to be with."

"So what should we do?" he asked her.

"I think we should try it. I mean, everyone thinks we are anyway. Not that that's why I want to!" she said, trying not to give the wrong impression. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Then let's go for it." He said, looking out at the slowly setting sun. "What do we have to lose?"

"Nothing." She replied to him. She rested her head on his shoulder. "We have nothing to lose at all."

"Nope, No way." Rin said. "This isn't happening. Not on my watch." She looked over to Cecilia who was looking down at the ground.

"What are we doing Rin?" Cecilia asked her. "Ichika is supposed to be our friend, and we are trying to deliberately hurt him. He obviously likes her; this isn't a ploy. It also seems that the feeling is mutual. I can't do this anymore, we'll just have to accept the fact that they are together."

"But….." Rin knew she was right. "Ugh!" She grunted as she started to walk back to the academy. "Why couldn't it have been me….." she said to herself.

Cecilia looked at the couple, staring off into the sunset.

"This isn't right that I'm here. I'll let them enjoy this moment by themselves." Cecilia rose to her feet and began to walk back.

'This feels so real.' Laura thought to herself. 'He likes me. He really likes me. He isn't playing a game with me. My first relationship. Let's just hope I don't screw this up.'

'Laura,' Ichika thought to himself. 'She is my first girlfriend. She is the last person I would've thought I'd be attracted to. Well, hopefully this will all go well. This is her first relationship as well. Let's just hope I don't screw this up.'

* * *

Chifuyu looked out of her room's window out to the couple sitting on the bench. "Ichika, what you are doing is not easy. There will be many bumps in the road, but I believe that in the end it will all work out. Just don't screw up Ichika; put everything you have into this. If you do, I will be forever grateful of you."

* * *

Please Review!


	6. Deception

This chapter took much longer than expected, but never the less it is here. I hope you like it. Don't forget to review! DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters

* * *

It was certainly a surprise, for the both of them. Who would've thought two unlikely people would be drawn so closely together. The pair sat on the bench at the dock, watching the sun setting, only a sliver of it was left. The beautiful colors disappeared and a cool breeze brushed both of them.

"It's getting a little cold," Ichika told her, "We should probably start going back to the academy soon."

"Yes," she replied. "Let's leave now." The two rose and began their walk back, hand in hand. Laura was rubbing her shoulders with her unoccupied hand to keep warm.

"Hold on one second." He stopped her and took off his school jacket, revealing a black t-shirt underneath. "Take this, I'm warm enough." He draped the jacket over her shoulders and they began to walk again.

"Ichika," The German woman began to say, "How do you think this will work?"

"How will what work?" he asked her, confused.

"This relationship. I've never been in one." Laura told him.

"Yeah, me neither. Who knows? I guess things will just happen." Ichika told her. They walked through the path in the forest and reached the normal path. It was too dark for either of them to really see where they were going until they saw the lights coming off the colossal building that they were currently residing in.

Eventually, they reached climbed the stairwell and eventually had to part ways. "Thanks for the jacket." She told him as she took it off and handed it back to him, with a smile.

"Thanks," he said. "Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." He told her. He turned his back and began to walk to his room. 'Hmmm' he pondered to himself. 'That was a little weird. We usually have tons to talk about, then we start going out for real and we suddenly have nothing to say. Maybe we should just stay in the friend zone, but I guess I will give it time.' He walked back to his room and unlocked the door. He stepped inside and changed into comfortable clothes to sleep in. He looked out his window at the moon rising into the sky. He remembered this view to be the same one Charlotte was always looking out at. She probably liked sharing a room with him. 'Charlotte,' he thought, not knowing how to deal with this whole problem 'What can I possibly do in a situation like this?' He sighed to himself. 'It's kind of late. I guess I'll go to bed.' He climbed into his bed, pulled the covers over his body, and closed his eyes

* * *

She stood there watching him walk away. A small smile came over Laura's face as she thought about their new-born relationship. She turned around and began the walk to her room. 'Ichika,' she thought to herself. 'He is my first companion; the first real person I can talk to and trust in….' she started to really think about things. 'Is this really what he wants though? Is he just humoring me, making me feel stupid?' The happy expression on her face was slowly disappearing. 'He probably would've said something right when I came up with the idea for pretending to go out.' She began to drag her feet and look down at the floor. 'I like him though, so maybe I'll be able to change his opinion of me: his girlfriend. But how to do that is the question.' She finally reached her door, slightly rejoiced and unlocked it. 'Maybe I can do something like-' Her train of thought was cut off. When she took her first step inside she heard the sound of a paper crunching. She looked down to see that a note had been slipped under her door. She picked it up and read it:

"Laura, meet me in the IS training ground tomorrow night at 9. Be ready to fight."

"Who the hell left this here?" she said to herself. She scanned back over the note to see that it had no name. "Whatever," she said, crushing the note in her palm. "My Schwarzer Regen and I will crush you." She threw the note into the garbage and walked to her window. 'Who would leave a note like that?' she thought to herself. 'Maybe it is just an older student who would like to experience the IS Representative of Germany first hand!' She was confident she would win, no matter the opponent. 'But would a student really go through all this trouble? Plus, I assume that this isn't a registered fight so it will just be us in the stadium. If they really wanted to fight me, they would probably want the whole school to watch if they were so confident to challenge me like this.' She thought, unsure of just who her opponent could be. 'They probably have their own reasons to want to battle me. The only thing that comes to mind that someone would want me for is…..' She knew that they were after Ichika. 'That is the only reason that I can really think of. Sure, there are a lot of girls that are jealous of me I'm sure, but mostly everyone in my class knows my potential and wouldn't want to fight me.'

All of this thinking was really starting to unsettle her. 'Let me show Ichika the note, maybe he'll know.' She walked over to her garbage receptacle and reached her hand to pick it out, but she stopped halfway. 'Am I so feeble that I have to go run to him everytime I have a problem. Chifuyu-sensei dealt with all of her problems on her own. Besides, he would probably come to the fight and try to protect or save me.' The very idea of that was very romantic to her, but she knew this was her fight. 'Plus I don't want him telling anyone and have a huge class gathering there and possibly get the teachers involved to stop it. They must have their reason for wanting to do it in private, and I will respect that.' She sighed and sat down on her bed untying her shoes. 'But what can I do about Ichika? I just know if I talk to him tomorrow, it will probably slip out. Just ignoring him would be rude though.' She pulled off her shoes to reveal she had not worn socks with them. She hiked her feet up onto her bed and put her hands behind her head.

"Ichika, the things I have to deal with because of you." She said out loud. She couldn't help but smile because she knew that it was all worth it.

* * *

Laura's eyes slowly opened to the light of the rising sun. Her eyes got about halfway open before she rolled over to get the sun out of her eyes. She looked down to see that she was still wearing the clothes from yesterday. 'I must've dosed off.' She thought to herself. She rose to her feet and grabbed her school uniform she had folded on the unoccupied bed in her room. She began to walk to the bathroom in a daze when she caught a glimpse of the crumpled up note in the garbage. She was immediately woken up and a serious look came over her face. She knew that she had to be serious. Tonight she was going to have an unsupervised Infinite Stratos battle, but more importantly she had to try to avoid Ichika all day. She continued to walk into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror. 'Am I really the person Ichika belongs with?' She ripped off her eye patch to reveal her golden eye. 'Someone who has an abomination like this doesn't belong to a guy like him.' She proceeded to take off the shirt, skirt, and undergarments she was wearing from the day before, still looking in the mirror. 'This isn't the body that a man would want.' She looked down in shame as she turned to the shower. She turned on the shower and stepped in. 'But he still wants to be with me. Is this what every girl feels like in a relationship?' She cleaned herself then stepped out and dried herself. She re-fastened her eye patch and got dressed up in her uniform quicker than usual. She wanted to get to class quicker than usual so she quickly dried her hair and ran out of the door. 'Well, no matter what, I have to avoid Ichika. I don't want him to get the wrong idea, but this is something I must handle on my own, for him. She closed the door behind her and took the back route to their classroom. The lighting was dim and had an eerie feel to it. 'I'm starting to understand why no one uses this way to class.' She kept walking until the lighting was better. She reached a staircase that was going down. She took one step down and looked at the bottom of the stairs. It was her worst nightmare. There stood Ichika with Charlotte, lips locked. The color drained out of her face and her arms dropped to her sides lifelessly. 'What?' she thought to herself, 'What the hell is this? Ichika has been playing with me this entire time?' She was clenching her teeth as hard as she could, trying to hold back crying. She turned her back and stomped off back the way she came.

"Charlotte….!" She growled under her breath. 'Ichika can't be like this. He just can't! After all those things he has said and did he wouldn't just under play me like that with some other girl. Charlotte must be trying to take matter into her own hands.' She stopped walking. Suddenly everything clicked into place. 'That note was from Charlotte!' she screamed in her mind. 'She wants to play this game? She wants to fight for Ichika? Fine, I have no opposition to that.' She pulled off her eye patch in her rage. Her artificial eye was glowing in the dark corridor she was in. 'Charlotte, I'm going to come at you with everything I have, for Ichika.' The tool that classified her as a failure was now the aspect that could possibly have her win the most important fight she has had in her life yet.

* * *

The morning light shone on the lone boy's silky black hair. His eyes slowly opened as he greeted the world this glorious morning. He turned his head to his clock and it was the perfect time he used for getting ready in the morning. He set his feet on the ground and stood up off of his bed, rubbing his eyes and stretching. He walked in the direction of his bathroom to notice a note that must've been slid under his door. It read:

Ichika, meet me outside back classroom entrance before class.

'It's not signed.' He thought to himself. 'It's probably Laura or someone.' He walked into the bathroom and got showered for the day. He slid on his shirt and his pants and got ready to leave the room when he sat down to tie his shoes. 'I really should talk to Charlotte sometime today. Things will only get more complicated until I get things settled with her.' He finally got on his shoes and left his room, closing the door behind him. He started walking his usual route when he realized that the note said to meet outside the back classroom entrance. 'I'm not even quite sure how to get there.' He thought to himself, feeling stupid. 'Well, I might as well go see Laura quick and walk her to the classroom.' Just thinking of her gave him a smile. He wasn't very far from her room so he walked down a hallway and knocked on her door. He didn't get an answer. 'Hmmm. Maybe she is still sleeping. I don't want to bother her.' He thought to himself. He continued walking the usual way until he reached the classroom door. 'I guess I'll just walk around and hopefully get there.' He continued walking until he got to the door on the other side to see a girl with light blonde hair standing there.

"Charlotte?" he asked out loud to her.

"Yes, I'm glad you could make it here." She said, back to her bubbly old self. "I assume you got my note. Come on, come over here." She grabbed his hand and walked him to a staircase that was encompassed in dim lighting.

"So Charlotte," he said, sounding flustered. "Why did you want me to come here?" Faint footsteps could be heard in the distance.

"Ichika, I don't want you to be worried about me anymore." She told him. "It will all be settled soon."

"Settled?" he asked her, "What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Ichika, no matter what happens to me, always remember me, ok?" she told him.

"What is that supposed to mean Charlotte?" he said, getting worried. "Charles, I know when you are lying; don't tell me everything is okay." The name slipped. She grabbed Ichika's head with her two hands and thrusted it to hers, locking lips.

'What?' Ichika thought to himself. 'This is so confusing….' Ichika had the feeling that someone was watching them. Loud footsteps faded into silence. He pulled himself off of Charlotte. "Charlotte, you know that I'm with Laura, is that what this is about?" he asked her.

"No, it's just that….." She started to walk away from him and when she got right to the end of the hallway, back facing him, said "I love you." She ran around the corner out of his sight. Ichika stood there, flabbergasted.

"Ugh!" he grunted as he slid down the wall to the floor. 'Why can't this just be simple? I'm not special or anything, yet everything that could get in my way, has. Not to mention-'

"Ichika? What are you doing here?" His train of thought was interrupted by a sweet voice. He looked up to see Cecilia and Rin standing over him. "We usually talk here since we are in different classes and the doors aren't too far apart from here, but the question is why you are here."

He decided not to tell them what happened. "I just needed some time to think to myself…Ahh!" He immediately shot up and covered his face. He realized that the two were here to probably jump him.

"Calm down!" Rin said, jumping over to him and pulling his arms down. "We aren't here to kick your ass, at least, not yet…"

"Oh." Ichika said, still nervous. "Well, what have you guys been doing?"

"We are sorry." Cecilia interjected, ignoring his question. "We realized that your relationships aren't our business, and as long as you like Laura…..we will too." She said, looking to Rin for confirmation. Rin turned red in embarrassment, but nodded nonetheless.

"Oh…." He said, wiping his forehead of the nervous sweat he broken into, relieved. "I'm glad to hear it. I actually haven't seen her yet today, have either of you?"

"Neither of us has seen her today." Rin said, slightly aggravated that he was trying to make it about her. "I've been with Cecilia all morning and neither of us came across her."

"I see. Oh well, maybe she's already in the classroom." He told them. "Oh!" he exclaimed briefly, "Have either of you talked to Charlotte lately?"

"No; I haven't." Cecilia said.

"Neither have I." Rin told him. "Why?"

He decided not to tell them about the events that had just transpired. "No reason, just haven't seen her in a while, haha…ha…." He laughed nervously, hoping they would let him off easy

"Alright." Cecilia said, squinting at him. "Well I'll see you in class." Cecilia ended with a smile. Rin began to walk back back to her classroom when Ichika stopped her.

"Rin, I have to thank you for understanding us. I really appreciate it. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried but now I'm relieved." He told her.

"Y-you're welcome!" she screamed happily. "It was the least I could do for you." The silence was awkward.

"Well, I have to go to class. I'll see you later." He turned his back and walked back to the class room. 'I _have_ to thank Cecilia for forgiving him later.' Rin thought to herself as she walked back to the Class 2 classroom.

* * *

Ichika walked into the classroom with only a minute of time to spare. He sat down in his front row seat. 'Everyone is there; Houki, Cecilia, Charlotte….but not Laura. Maybe she is sick.' He thought to himself. As usual class went on uninterrupted, despite some awkwardness with Charlotte. Eventually, class for the day ended and they all went their separate ways. 'Let me go check on Laura now. She wasn't in class at all today. I hope she is alright.' He thought to himself. He smiled at Houki quick as he left. He ascended up the stairs as he always did to reach the dorms and reached the top. 'I hope I don't run into Charlotte. Well, I do, but I need to talk to someone about this whole thing. First though, I must see Laura.' He thought. He walked down the long hallway to Laura's room and knocked. No answer yet again. This time, he was going to try to go in. The door was unlocked, so he walked in. "Laura!" he called out into the room. "Laura! Are you in here?" he really didn't have to yell, if she was in the room she would have heard him if he just talked.

Laura was in the bathroom, looking in the mirror at her eye. "To win Ichika, I must do this. A true IS battle, and with the Schwarzer Regen, I will be victorious.' She was thinking to herself. She heard the door open. She went to go open the bathroom door to see who it was when she heard him scream her name. 'Damn! I forgot to lock the door when I came back in today. I'll just stay in here; hopefully he will just leave after soon. What is that asshole doing here anyway? He was kissing Charlotte. He doesn't care about me anyway…' She began to think about Ichika and their relationship. '

Ichika walked around her room, looking for clues as to where she was going/went. Unfortunately, he found nothing. 'I really hope everything is alright.' He thought to himself. He sat down on the bed closest to the large window on the far wall. "Laura…." He said solemnly outloud. "Please be alright." He said. Laura was taken aback. She has never had someone truly miss her before. 'Ichika,' she thought, pushing her body up to the door of the bathroom. 'Just give me some time. You don't have to worry yourself. It is all Charlotte's fault. I'll make her pay.' She clenched her fist in an aggressive manner.

Ichika sighed and stood up. 'I guess I'll go see Chifuyu for a little while. This really is turning out to be harder than I thought. She just gets up and leaves without telling me at all, I hope she isn't playing me.' He walked to her door and left, closing it behind himself. Laura emerged from the bathroom. "Ichika, tomorrow we can go back to that place. I will explain myself and we will live happily, Right?" she said outloud, even though she was by herself. 'Just wait Charlotte. At nine o'clock tonight, you will truly realize the force that you have been reckoning with.'

* * *

Ichika walked up the stairwell to Chifuyu's room. He knocked on the door and received no answer. 'This has been happening a lot to me lately.' He thought to himself. 'Oh well,' he thought, sitting down next her door. 'I'll just wait for her to come back.' After twenty minutes of just sitting there, he felt his eyelids getting heavier. He slowly slumped down and was soon asleep.

* * *

It was time. The sun had long been behind the mountains. The time to settle this dispute over Ichika had finally arrived Laura stripped down and put on her gray IS combat uniform and her eye patch on. She strapped her IS recaller to her thigh as she usually did. 'I'm coming for you, Charlotte.' She thought to herself as she left her room. It was 8:45 which was early and even though many of the girls were already in their room or sleeping, she still had to try to sneak around. She tiptoed down the hallway and down the stairs, hiding around corners to hide from the few girls wandering the halls. Eventually she reached the door to the training grounds. 'I obviously can't just barge in, and alarm will sound.' She looked around for a way around. She climbed up on a stack of boxes on the side to the top and looked around for something. She eventually spotted an air vent. 'Perfect.' She thought to herself. She pulled off the cover and squeezed her little self in. The metal in the vent was freezing and she was barely fitting in, but she persevered and made it into the stands where it emptied out. She looked around to see no one else there. The moon in the sky lit up the battleground brightly. She walked slowly down the stairs, trying to spot Charlotte, but no one was there. She jumped down into the battleground and waited for her.

'I wonder if she chickened out.' She gasped quickly. 'What if she made me come here just so she could go to Ichika without me there?' She began to run back in where something caught the corner of her eye. She looked up into the sky to see a flying bright orange speck. She immediately identified it as Charlotte. 'Thank goodness.' Laura thought relieved, but the battle had yet to begin. Laura took her position back at the middle of the ground. Charlotte descended from the sky and landed a reasonable distance from Laura. The two stared at each other with malice. Without words, Laura summoned her Schwarzer Regen. Its shiny black and red armor encompassed her limbs and hovered over her shoulders.

"Before this starts, there is something I must ask you." Charlotte said. Laura looked at her with a stern face.

"I will answer one question. Then we settle this."

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This chapter may have been a little different to what the others were, but I hope you continue to follow this story. Please Review!


	7. For Ichika

Chapter 7 is /finally/ out. This took much longer than expected, but I think it is a good chapter. Also, everyone, keep Japan in your minds, they need our thoughts and prayers now more than ever. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy the chapter and thank you to those of you who have been here since this story was just started. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters. Please don't forget to review!

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"Oy, Ichika." Chifuyu said to her sound asleep brother, slumped on the ground next to her door. "Ichika!" she screamed at him to no avail. She picked his head up and slapped him in the cheek.

"Ahh…." He shouted, as he slowly started to fall back asleep.

"Ichika, don't fall back asleep." Chifuyu said, getting annoyed. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?" he said, rubbing his eyes and his cheek. "Oh, right. I wanted to talk to you."

"I assume it is about Laura." Chifuyu said, not surprised. "I noticed she was not in class today. Is she sick or something?"

"No, well, I'm not sure. I was hoping that you would know." He told her, hoping that she wasn't going to yell at him for not even knowing where she is. "But there are a few things I wanted to talk to you about."

"Again so soon?" she asked him, again, not surprised. "Well, I told you my door will always be open, so let's go in." The two Orimuras got up and walked into her office/room. Ichika took his usual spot on the bed while Chifuyu pulled out a chair to talk to him face to face.

"So, about Laura, how have you two been doing?" she asked him.

"Well, I thought good, but I could be wrong. I don't understand why she would just up and leave and just not tell me why." He told her, slightly annoyed and saddened.

"We will have to look for her. It is the schools responsibility after all to ensure her safety. Anyway, I thought you were progressing very nicely as well. I saw you two at that bench near the docks yesterday." She told him.

"Y-you knew we were there?" he said, surprised and slightly embarrassed.

"Relax, I couldn't hear what you guys were saying, but I am curious." She said a small smile appearing on her face.

"Well, I don't see any harm in that." He said, realizing that Chifuyu was just trying to help him. "We decided that…..we should go out for real." Chifuyu was surprised by this.

"Surely Laura wouldn't agree to something like that unless she can trust you." She told him.

"That's what I thought, but I've been having second thoughts. This could ruin our friendship, plus she just left without telling me or anyone. You don't think she is just using me for information like how Charlotte was sent here for right?" he asked her.

"No!" Chifuyu said sternly back at him. "Get every trace of that thought out of your mind. Laura isn't using you. I know the circumstances she came here and learning about you wasn't one of them. She likes you Ichika, don't forget that." Ichika was surprised by the sudden response. 'She probably sees some of herself in Laura.' Ichika thought to himself. "Look, I'm sure it isn't easy for you being the only male IS pilot, but being a girl trying to compete for the heart of a guy surrounded by girls is ten times harder. She has a hard time trusting people, especially because of her past, don't even think that she is trying to play a game. She truly likes you Ichika. You can be assured that she has a reason for doing whatever she is doing."

"Yeah, I guess you are right." Ichika said, convinced. "Thanks Chifuyu-nee~." She couldn't help but chuckle at him. "There is another thing that I thought I should bring to your attention though." He said to her.

"Oh?" She said, surprised. "Well, out with it; what is it?"

"Well, I got a note under my door that wasn't signed saying to meet them at the back door to the classroom. Anyway, before class I went there and it was Charlotte that had written the letter." 'Charlotte? She better not be starting any trouble.' Chifuyu thought, getting serious. "She told me not to worry and that soon everything will be settled, or something, then kissed me and ran off. Before she cleared the corner of the hallway, she said, 'I love you' and ran off." 'Dammit. I wonder…..' thought Chifuyu.

"I was afraid that something like this would happen. You see, this is what makes it so hard with you being involved with Laura, most of the girls want to be with you, some more than others. When you passed out after the kiss, Charlotte was by your side the whole time, crying because she thought you and Laura were a couple. While Charlotte's past was definitely not easy, trusting people is still easier and since you guys had a huge build of trust since you thought she was the only other guy here, she feels like you are forgetting her; that she is just another girl that goes to this academy, fitting in with the crowd. She probably liked being singled out with you." She hoped that Ichika was starting to understand.

"…" He was silent. "I tried telling her that I wasn't going to forget her and that we are still going to be good friends, but she really didn't believe me. How do I explain something like that when it is just going to be ignored?" Ichika said. It was apparent that he was getting annoyed talking about Charlotte. "I asked her to just be straight with me and tell me the truth but she insisted that she was. That was probably just a lie." Chifuyu stared at him. She could see that he was starting to break, but they had to keep talking about it.

"Listen Ichika, don't let Charlotte guilt you into breaking up with Laura. You can't let her try to rule you. It isn't fair to Laura." She told him.

"But why is she trying to do this? Does she think that I'm going to fall for her if she acts weird like this? I noticed that she was constantly up on the roof, just looking off into the distance. Everytime I tried talking to her, she would just start to break down."

"Ichika," she said. Being nice wasn't going to get her anywhere; she had to tell him what to do. "I already told you that this wasn't going to be easy."

"But why!" he shot up from the bed and yelled at her. "_Why_ does it have to be so hard? I just want be with Laura peacefully. Everyone is okay with our relationship now except for Charlotte. Of all people, I thought she would be the most understanding..."

"Ichika, sit down and get a hold of yourself." He knew that she was right. He sat back down on her bed and waited for her to say something. "I think I have an idea of where Laura is. Well, a broad idea. I think that Charlotte and Laura both met up somewhere to talk." Suddenly, something clicked in Chifuyu's brain clicked. "Ichika, come over here." She shot up from her seat and jumped over to the large window in her room that looked down to the practice battlegrounds. "Just as I thought." She said to herself.

"What?" Ichika jumped off the bed and looked down to where his sister was looking. There appeared to be two small figures all the way down at the bottom, one black and one orange. "Is that…?" Ichika didn't want to finish his thought.

"I would assume so. We can talk more at a later time. Quick, we must get down there quickly" She told him, already turning around and jogging to the door.

"Understood." He said, following after her.

* * *

"I will answer one question. Then we settle this." Laura stared at the blonde French woman with a cold stare, ready to brawl with all she has. Charlotte was giving her the exact same stare, both of their eyes as cold as ice.

"Who do you think you are, entering this school with a hatred of Ichika, and then so soon after, you two are going out. So that is my question. _Who the hell do you think you are?_" she ended in a sinister voice. 'She really is ready for anything. This is a side of here I never thought I would see, let alone actually exist. I must be careful. Remember, this is for Ichika.'

"I'll have to answer your question with another question; do you think I'm just going to play Ichika? That this is just some sick game inside of my head?" Laura told her, getting into it. "The last thing I thought would happen has happened, but I'm glad it has and I'm not going to take it back for anyone. So who do you think _you _are Charlotte; you are supposed to be his friend, yet you are trying to rip the girl most important to him away?" Laura couldn't help but start to taunt her; her old self was beginning to resurface.

"You are trying to pull him away from me! He was supposed to be mine, and without him, I have no reason to even be here. This fight is all or nothing for me and you can be assured that I will not lose." Charlotte got into a fighting stance as she began to draw her Vent .55 caliber semi auto assault rifle. 'Of all the weapons she could have picked to begin this fight, she picks the one best suited for me to block.' Laura thought to herself. "Ahhhh!" Charlotte screamed as she shot off rounds of her current opponent.

"Pitiful." Laura said out loud, as she put hand out in front of her. Her Active Inertia Canceller came into fruition. Large Technicolor wave spread out from her palm and made a shield much bigger than her body. 'Even though against most guns my AIC doesn't work because the bullets come at me too fast, but with the spaced out bullets of the Vent, I can focus on each individually.' All of the bullets from Charlotte's weapon were stopped in mid-air and dropped to the floor. "You should really do your homework before challenging the best." She said with her eye closed. Slowly, her old, cocky self was coming back. She opened her eye after no more than 2 seconds of being closed to see that Charlotte had disappeared from her line of sight. 'What?' she thought to herself as she looked around quickly.

"Up here!" Charlotte screamed. She was armed with her Garm .61 SMG and already raining bullets down on her. Even though the shield would absorb them all, she still tried her best to cover her head with her hands. 'Damn, that was a stupid mistake. I have to stop underestimating this girl. She is fighting for the same thing I am.' Charlotte landed to the ground and instead of saying something along the lines "You should've kept your eyes on me," she just stared at her, with that cold blank stare. Laura began to rush back at her, ducking, weaving, and dashing to avoid the hail of bullets being shot at her. She was skimmed by multiple, but none were direct hits. Eventually, Laura was right in her face. Charlotte did a 360 degree spin, grabbing her Bread Slicer Blade, her only melee weapon, and flung it at her. Laura put out her hand and stopped it with her AIC.

"Have you forgotten already? Close quarter attacks like that are futile." Laura sold at her, insulting her intelligence. Laura kicked the blade out of Charlotte's metal covered hand and hit her with a direct blast from her Shoulder Cannon.

"Ugh!" Charlotte screamed in agony as she flew back, eventually hitting the ground face first in a cloud of smoke. Laura looked down on her with a devious smile. She was back to toying with her.

"Ichika is mine. I'll give you one last chance to back down; don't make me have to finish you off." Laura told her. Laura dashed right up to her and readied her beam sword, ready to deplete her shields. Charlotte brought herself onto all fours, looking at the ground. "So, what do you say?" Laura asked her mockingly.

"No way in hell." Charlotte jumped up to her feet with her Rain of Saturday shotgun pointed at Laura's face. 'Damn, what did I just tell myself? It is going to take some maneuvering to escape this one.' Laura thought to herself, trying to lose her cockiness and regain her cool.

"Laura," Charlotte told her, shotgun ready to fire at point blank range, "what do you plan on doing with Ichika?"

"What do I plan on doing?" she repeated back to her. "For the last time, I'm just planning on being with him. There is no 'plan' that I have. Get that through your head." Laura told her. Talking down to her in a situation like this proved to be problematic.

"You're a liar!" Charlotte shouted at Laura. Laura took this as an opportunity. She shot her wire-guided daggers at her, hoping to catch her. Charlotte jumped back and shot from a farther distance. Even though Laura sustained some blows, she still managed to wrap her wires around her ankles. Laura slammed her into the ground with all of her might, leaving a huge dust cloud. Laura retracted her wires and stared into the area of zero visibility. She waited for her to appear out of the cloud of a hail of bullets to emerge. Nothing. 'Did that finish her? Just a simple slam? No, this must be a trick.' Laura thought to herself. She wasn't going to fall for anymore tricks. She readied her wired daggers, ready to grab her. Soon enough, a hail of bullets from Charlotte's Garm SMG blew away the cloud of dust. Charlotte quickly dashed to the side to avoid them and shot her wire daggers at her.

"You fool!" Laura laughed loudly at her. Her wires wrapped around her SMG and pulled it out of her hands. A devilish smirk appeared on Charlotte's face. Laura quickly lost her sense of humor and tried to figure out why she wasn't panicking. Charlotte drew her Vent Assault rifle and began to shoot the slow but powerful bullets at her. 'Impossible….' Laura thought in her mind. Charlotte made a complete shot in the dark that she couldn't dodge or use her AIC when her daggers were launched. She was right. Laura immediately used her wires to throw the SMG as far as possible as to no sustain any more blows, but it wasn't quick enough. Laura was hit multiple times by the bullets, bringing her to her knees. Her shields were in the red.

"No….this isn't happening." Laura said out loud. "It isn't supposed to go like this!" she was screaming. Sweat was dripping down her face. A look of anguish was suddenly took over her face. She looked up to Charlotte, expecting a smile, much like the one she usually has when she is in the lead. It was never a devious or evil smile like Laura's tended to be, but one of happiness. However, there was no smile of the sort on her face; just that cold stare. 'I'm going to have to resort to this.' Laura thought in her mind. Her left hand, encompassed in metal, rose to her head. She quickly slashed the band holding her eye patch in place, revealing her golden eye. A calm look prevailed over her previous expression and she rose to her feet.

"Ugh." Charlotte quickly grunted. She forgot about her eye. "Resorting to handicaps to beat me, eh?" Charlotte said, trying to sound calm.

"A handicap is what you call it," Laura said, buying time to analyze Charlotte's Raphael-Revive II, "but it is what makes me who I am, and Ichika likes me for it. I will not tolerate you, or any opposition to our relationship. I would fight teachers if I had to. Since my eye is not perfect and definitely has its faults, I'm going to give you one more chance to escape here, unscathed."

"I'm sure you know by now I'm not going to back down either. I couldn't forgive myself if I just backed down now." Charlotte wasn't going to budge. Her confidence was truly a surprise to Laura.

"I must say," Laura told Charlotte, "This new-found confidence you have was certainly a surprise. However, you can't beat me." Without giving a reply to the silver haired girl, Charlotte dashed right back into Laura's face with her shotgun ready. Laura didn't even have to move and the mounted cannons on her shoulder shot the gun out of her hands. Charlotte did not make this slow her down, though. She quickly recovered with her Bread Slicer in hand. She swung for Laura face to ensure a blow to deplete her shields, but Laura grabbed her wrist before the knife could hit her with little effort.

"I really didn't want to use this eye ever," Laura said, "and I wanted to beat you with just myself, but it seems like that would be more problematic. Ichika is mine. You can still be friends with him, but his heart is mine."

"His heart will never be yours!" Charlotte barked in her face. "He was meant to be with me!" Charlotte jumped back quickly and readied her Vent assault rifle for the third time. She shot bullets at Laura to no avail. "I still have one more resort left to defeat you." From the arm of the Raphael-Revive II, her physical shield opened up and a weapon emerged that stayed connected with her arm.

"The Gray Scale…." Laura said. 'That is the most powerful armament that a second generation IS can use. This will be challenging even with my eye.' Laura thought to herself. The new weapon's nozzle opened and shot out a pointed, black, battering ram-type bullet at Laura. Laura activated her AIC in preparation for the blow. It connected with the AIC and made a big bang. "Ugh." Laura grunted as the shot was blocked by her AIC, pushing her back. 'That truly is powerful.' Laura thought, trying to stay calm. Charlotte began to dash again towards her, with the Gray Scale ready to shoot. Laura shot beams out of her shoulder-mounted cannons in an effort to hit her, but Charlotte ducked and weaved passed all of them. Once Charlotte was right in Laura's face, Laura drew her beam sword out of her hand and swung it at Charlotte. This forced her to use the shield part of the Gray Scale.

They both stood there in a stalemate, waiting for the other to make a move. Laura shot out one of her wire-guided daggers and wrapped it around Charlotte's ankle. 'Now is my chance.' Charlotte thought to herself. Charlotte quickly slid the beam swords blade off of her shield and was ready to shoot her point blank with the Gray Scale. Laura sent two more of her daggers to grab a hold of the Gray Scale. Charlotte got off one shot, which whizzed right passed Laura's face before she used her daggers to point it to the ground. She sent out her other three daggers to grab her other limbs and deliver the final blow, but Charlotte had other plans. She quickly grabbed her Vent assault rifle with one hand and pointed it at her at point blank range. 'Damn!' Laura immediately retracted her sword and her daggers in order for her to use the AIC to block the shot. Once she got the AIC out and ready, Charlotte dashed back to gain some distance on her.

'That AIC really has a bad drawback. In order for her to use it, she cannot have any other weapon out. I had no intention of shooting it. With only one hand, I couldn't aim it at all and the recoil would probably send it flying out of my hands. What else can I use to defeat her?' Charlotte pondered to herself. "It seems we are evenly matched." Charlotte told her.

"Not quite." Laura replied. She drew both of her beam swords and prepared her cannons to shoot. 'It is all or nothing.' Laura thought to herself. Charlotte looked around and saw her SMG lying right next to her, so she picked it up. In one hand she held her SMG and in the other hand, her Rain of Saturday shotgun. Her Gray Scale could still shoot if she ditched her SMG. They both stared each other down with the same look they entered this arena with. 'Now!' They both thought in unison as they both charged at each other. 'For Ichika!' The two girls both thought, again. Charlotte tried shooting her SMG at her while they were both dashing, but it was out of ammunition, so she threw they SMG aside and readied her Gray Scale.

"STOP!" The two collided. Laura was shooting rapidly out of her shoulder cannons and slashed using both of her swords, while Charlotte shot both shots out of her shotgun and was firing her Gray Scale as quickly as possible.

"Success." The two girls said aloud at the same time. Laura was breathless when she heard Charlotte's voice, and vice versa. Neither of the girls dared to move a muscle. They waited for the dust to clear from the tremendous blow. Slowly, the two girls saw a white and blue armed figure in between them them that sustained the hits. He stood there, limply, only to fall on the ground seconds later. Blood was traveling from his unconscious body. The two looked to the stands to see Chifuyu leaning over the railing with a horrified face. The three girls all looked back down at the collapsed boy.

"Ichika!"

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I hope you enjoyed it. Please Review!


	8. Aftermath 2

A thousand pardons for major wait between chapters. My computer died and I lost EVERYTHING including the chapter that was near done. So after procrastinating and motivating myself, I finally restarted it and it is finally done. Also, I hope everyone enjoyed the season finale, I know I did. Everyone also mark your calenders for April 8th for volume 7 of the Infinite Stratos Light Novel which I can't wait for, especially after the crazy cliff hanger at the end of volume 6. Well, without further delay, Here is Chapter 8. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters

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"And just what did you IDIOTS plan on accomplishing!" a pissed off Chifuyu yelled at Charlotte and Laura. They were all sitting in her office/room while Ichika was in the medical ward. "Of all of the guys in the world, you guys fight using the most powerful force in the world over ONE guy. If this gets out what do you think the whole world would think? Us women were put at the top of the world with the Infinite Stratos; a story like this could just send us back down. So let me ask you two again, just what were you trying to accomplish?" Chifuyu's eyes were on fire. Never have either of the girls seen her as angry as this. Neither of them dared make eye contact with her, they were afraid that her stare would rip right through them. "Huh!" she yelled at them. "Neither of you have anything to say? Should I just expel both of you and get on with my night?"

"No…." Laura said quietly, still trying to avoid eye contact with her enraged mentor.

"Then explain yourselves!" She demanded.

"We were fighting for Ichika." Charlotte said, being strong.

"That much was apparent." Chifuyu said, calming down. "And you Laura? Anything you want to say?" Laura stayed silent. She had no idea what to say. 'What would be the correct response…?' Laura thought to herself. She didn't want to sound stupid in front of her role model.

"Well…." Laura said, drifting off.

"That's exactly what I thought." Chifuyu said in a sickened tone. "Neither of you really know what you want; just fighting over this boy because you can. Pathetic."

"That's not true!" Charlotte said confidently back at her. "Ichika is more than just regular guy."

"Is that why you like him?" Charlotte winced at hearing Chifuyu's hypothesis. She knew that she is right. "You want to be with someone different. Someone to keep with you through the hard times that could come ahead in your life, but let me assure you, the academy will back you up one hundred percent on what has happened. Your dad will not be able to do anything rash." Charlotte broke eye contact with her again. She didn't want to believe the truth, but she knew that she had to. The reality was just beginning to hit her.

"I haven't heard a peep out of you, Laura." Chifuyu said, back to her regular self. "I thought you actually cared about Ichika. That he was the one guy you could trust."

"He is….." She said, barely audible.

"Don't tell me that you have just been messing with him this whole time." Chifuyu said, pressing on.

"I'm not." She said louder. Chifuyu heard her, but she chose to ignore her.

"Well, I can't blame you, Ichika is just another guy. He isn't anything special. He starts all these fights and creates all this tension," Chifuyu said to Laura, trying to get a rise out of her. "He is worthless if you ask me."

"Don't say that!" Laura yelled. She shot up out of her seat, making it fall over. "I won't let you talk about my boyfriend like that!" Hearing this made Chifuyu smirk a little. However, when Charlotte heard this, she got up and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her. This made Chifuyu lose her smirk. Laura looked at the door sadly. She finally got an idea of what Charlotte was experiencing thanks to Chifuyu.

"Huuhh." Laura sighed, sitting down in the still standing chair that Charlotte had left behind. "Sorry." Laura finally said, avoiding eye contact again.

"Laura, I want you to look at me." Chifuyu told her, being stern. "What both of you two did I'm not necessarily mad at. It is just why you guys let it escalade to this level. So what I want you to tell me is how this fight came about." Laura explained the note and what happened in their conversation during the fight. "I see." Chifuyu said. Laura looked down at her feet in embarrassment. After a long silence, Laura said,

"Why does it have to be this hard?"

"Ichika said that exact same thing just before we came down to get you guys." Chifuyu told her. Laura looked up from the ground at her. Chifuyu had a soft expression on her face. It wasn't necessarily happy, but it wasn't the usual serious face she always had on. "It is reassuring to know that the feelings between you two are mutual." Laura kept staring at Chifuyu.

"What do you mean?" Laura asked her, confused.

"It is obvious that your feelings for him are strong," Chifuyu said to her. Laura couldn't help but blush. Discussing her feelings about a guy with her role model, let alone the guy being the aforementioned lady's brother, was embarrassing. "and Ichika and I were just discussing you before we caught light of you and Charlotte." Laura was a bright red now. "He sounded just as distraught as you are. You can let all of you speculations to rest about him." Chifuyu told her, in a nice voice. Laura's head started to dip. "Are you tired?" Chifuyu asked her. That wasn't it. Tears started falling from the girl's real eye. Chifuyu got up from her seat and walked around the desk. She got down on one knee and wiped Laura's tears away. Laura knew that she was about to ask her why she was crying.

"The pain he has had to endure because of me…." Laura said, still crying. "And now what happened out on the field. He was physically injured because of me." Laura couldn't stop sniffling.

"While I'm not going to deny that," Chifuyu said. She grabbed Laura and held her close. "I'm sure he would go through it all again for you." This just made Laura weep even more.

"C-…Can we see h-…im?" Laura could barely say because she was crying. Chifuyu's expression became more solemn.

"I don't think that that is such a good idea right now. He needs his rest. I bet he isn't conscious and he probably won't be until tomorrow." Chifuyu told the distraught young woman. "You can take tomorrow from class off to recover. I'm going to let Charlotte do the same."

"What do you think she is g-… going to do?" Laura asked her.

"I'm not quite sure." Chifuyu told her. She was planning on finding her soon but she wasn't going to tell Laura that right now. There was a silence. "I'll walk you back to your room. Go to bed right when we get back. Girls like us need to keep up our strength." She grabbed Laura's hand and helped her stand up from her chair. She held her wrist as she walked her to her door and opened it. They descended the stairs and walked down the long hallway in absolute silence. They eventually reached Laura's unlocked door.

"I can trust you will be alright." Chifuyu said, almost back to herself. "Laura, no more tears, ok?" she said to the silver haired girl. "It feels like I've been saying that a lot lately." She said quietly to herself.

"I understand." She told her. "You don't have to worry about me anymore. I'll deal with everything on my own."

"Remember, Ichika will be there for you whenever you need him. Don't think you are all alone. We have saved you from your past." Chifuyu said.

"Yeah…" Laura said. "Well, you were right. I am tired. I'll see you later Chifuyu-sensei." Laura opened her door and closed it. She let out a big sigh and walked over to her bed. She fell down onto it and squirmed up to her pillow. 'Well, today was certainly interesting. I fought a fellow student over a boy. I wouldn't really say that that is fitting in, but it is just exciting doing something I have only heard off. However, I learned that Ichika has endured a lot because of me.' Her facial expression was one of sadness. 'But I can't cry. I promised that I can't. Besides, Ichika wouldn't want me to.' Her eyes closed as she fell asleep.

* * *

'Now to find Charlotte.' Chifuyu thought to herself. 'I would assume she wouldn't go back to a place as easy to guess as her room.' She stood outside of Laura's door for a minute, trying to figure out the possible places that Charlotte could have gone. 'Hmmmm' she thought. Chifuyu ascended the stairs towards her room, but kept going up to the roof. She opened the door to see the one and only Charlotte standing there, looking out into the distance. She closed the door as quietly as possible and sidled up next to Charlotte.

"Do you come here often?" She asked Charlotte, trying not to immediately jump onto the main topic so Charlotte wouldn't just run away again.

"Sometimes; I look off into the direction of my home." Charlotte said, while looking out to the mountains.

"I can assume that France is your home?" she asked her.

"Yes, I have lived there all my life. It is where I belong." Charlotte replied dryly.

"While that may be true," Chifuyu started to say, "Here is your home now. You have friends here. We will take care of you. The only person back in France for you is your father, and I'm sure that you wouldn't want to go back to him." Chifuyu was right. Charlotte knew this. She should have guessed by now that Chifuyu can essentially figure out any situation. There was no point in trying to hide anything from her.

"But he is my family, and I know that deep down he loves me." Charlotte said.

"He doesn't show it though, and that isn't how a parent is supposed to behave." Chifuyu said. "You are more mature than him."

"….." Charlotte was silent. "…..You and Ichika grew up without parents right?"

"Yes." She replied. "It was tough, but I would like to say that both of us made it out alright. I mean, we missed out on many things; we never had any family vacations or lengthy family dinners, but we had fun." This was the first time Chifuyu had ever been on this type of level with someone.

"I see…" Charlotte said.

"Look," Chifuyu said, hoping to wrap this up in this reply, "I know that it is hard knowing that Ichika has a girl friend and all, but I have taught him better than to just throw away his friends. If he did, I would never forgive him and he knows that. I'm sure he will try everything in his power to keep you close to him as well; that I will bet my position in this academy on." Charlotte suddenly looked over to Chifuyu to make sure she wasn't joking with her, but her face was as serious as could be. "Come on Charlotte. Let's go back to your room and start fresh tomorrow." Chifuyu had succeeded; Charlotte agreed to go back to her room. The pair walked back to Charlotte's room in the dorms as they talked casually about Charlotte's IS and her abilities to try to get her mind of the subject before she went to bed. Eventually, they arrived at her room.

"As with Laura, I will exempt you from class tomorrow so you can take a day of to recuperate. Can I trust that you won't start anything with her over the course of tomorrow?" Chifuyu asked her. Charlotte looked down at the ground but still nodded. "Well, alright. I will talk to you the day after tomorrow. Don't lose any sleep tonight over things you aren't sure of, okay?" Chifuyu wanted to avoid bringing up Ichika by name. Charlotte nodded again as she walked back into her room. She walked over to her bed and fell asleep without an utterance.

* * *

Chifuyu walked back up the stairs to her room, but stopped right as she got to her room. "Huh~" she sighed as she leaned against the wall. 'I hope Ichika is alright. I want him to be happy, and with Laura I know he will. His actions this evening showed that he really did care about her, but not just her, Charlotte too. He could have just blocked Charlotte's attacks, but he blocked Laura's as well. It seems that he is keeping everyone in his mind.' Chifuyu thought to herself. A small smile appeared on Chifuyu's face. She got off the wall and opened her door. She walked over to her desk and sat down. She picked up a stack of papers and lined them all up. She laid them down on her desk and got a pen to start to write. She stopped just before it hit the paper. She looked out the window at the gleaming moon coming through the clouds. She looked back down at the papers and set her pen down. 'I think maybe I'll just call it a night.' She thought to herself. She stood up and walked to her bed. She took off her shoes and laid down. 'Please be unharmed, Ichika.' She thought as she rolled over and closed her eyes.

* * *

"Come on, let's go." Cecilia said to her Chinese roommate. "You take so long getting dressed."

"Hey, shut up!" Rin hissed at Cecilia as she tried to pull up her socks. "It's not my fault it takes me so long. Maybe you are just too fast."

"There is no such thing as getting ready too fast." Cecilia told her, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Whatever." Rin tried to hurry as best as she could. Eventually she was ready. She stood up and followed Cecilia out the door. "So what are we going to do today?"

"Well, since we made up to Ichika," Cecilia said, "We could try to do something with him and Laura. We could also ask Houki and Charlotte to come as well."

"No!" Rin stated. "I don't want any more competition than there has to be."

"Competition for what?" Cecilia said deviously. She knew what Rin meant, she just liked pushing her buttons.

"Uhhh…nothing!" Rin said, turning red. "Just forget about it." The duo kept walking to class as usual until Rin said, "Hey, Cecilia?"

"That's me." Cecilia replied.

"Don't you think that Charlotte has been acting a little weird lately?" Rin asked her.

"Now that you mention it," Cecilia said, recalling previous events. "You are right. I would've thought that she would have been with us, scheming together. Maybe she is really broken up about their relationship."

"Yeah, but at the same time, I would've thought she would've been the most okay with it out of all of us." Rin said.

"Hmmm," Cecilia said, thinking. "She was really quiet yesterday. Well, we will just have to ask her today in class." The two kept walking until they reached the classroom. They entered to see Houki already seated. They looked around to see that neither Charlotte, Laura, nor Ichika were present.

"They are probably just running a little late." Cecilia said to her roommate. "Well, I'll see you later."

"Yeah…" Rin said, taking one last look around the class. "See ya." She exited the class and proceeded to her class room. Cecilia walked over to Houki's desk and leaned on it.

"Good morning." Houki said to her, being more formal than needed.

"Hello. Do you know where the other three are?" Cecilia asked her. Houki knew exactly who she was talking about.

"No idea. I went to Laura's room last night to talk and maybe become friends, but she wasn't there and it was pretty late." Houki said.

"Hmmm….alright." She said. "Rin and I were planning on maybe hanging out with Ichika and Laura after class today. You can join us if you'd like." Cecilia got up off her desk and was about to begin walking back to her own desk.

"Sure." Houki told her. Cecilia gave her a smile. "Maybe all of us can be friends now."

"I hope so. Charlotte and Rin are the ones I am worried about." Houki said. Hearing this, Cecilia became interested. She leaned back down onto Houki's desk.

"Rin and I already told Ichika that we are okay with their relationship, but Rin and I were literally just talking about how weird Charlotte has been lately while we were walking here." Cecilia told her.

"She has been too quiet; it is unlike her. We should try to talk to her today." Houki said to Cecilia.

"We had the same idea. I'm glad we are on the same page. Well, I'll talk to you later." Cecilia got up from her desk.

"Yeah, see you." Houki replied. Cecilia took sat down in her desk. The two waited for any of the three missing classmates to enter, but none of them did. Eventually Chifuyu marched in as usual.

"Everyone take your seats, class is now in session." She stated in a stern voice. Class went on as usual. When the group was walking to the locker room to change for the second part of class, Houki approached Chifuyu.

"Sensei, do you know where Laura, Charlotte, or your brother are?"

"I do not." Chifuyu lied. She didn't want the news that an unauthorized fight over a boy get out into the public. She avoided eye contact with Houki. Of all the people in the school, Houki is the only person other than her brother who could probably tell that she was lying since she has known her for a while. "I would assume they are sick. I will check with all of them after class." Houki stared at Chifuyu, squinting her eyes as if she was trying to see anything that would say she was lying.

"Do you have anything else to ask me, because if not, leave me alone and proceed to the locker room." Chifuyu said harshly. She stared right into Houki's eyes with a menacing glare.

"Sorry…" Houki said, walking away still not convinced. Once Houki was out of Chifuyu's sight, she let out a sigh and dropped her menacing expression. 'Sometimes I really wish that I didn't have to be so stern and punctually with everyone, but who knows how this class would be run if both Maya and I were so laid back.' She thought to herself. Her mind then flashes with pictures of the class throwing things across the room, screaming, and not paying attention. Just thinking about such a class sent a chill down Chifuyu's spine. 'Whatever, it really doesn't matter at the moment.' She thought to herself. She waited at the entrance of the IS training ground for a second just to gain her composure back, and then walked out there with her usual, stern facial expression.

* * *

Her eyes slowly opened to the morning sun. This wasn't a morning to wake up ecstatic about everything, even though Laura was never like that. Ichika was the only thing on her mind. How much he cares for her, what he will do to protect her, does he still like her, is he okay…? All of these questions flooded Laura's mind the second she woke up. Since she was exempt from class today, she only had one thing to do today; go see Ichika. She grabbed her regular IS academy uniform because even though she was given a day away from class, doesn't mean she can walk around wearing whatever she wanted to. She took off her pajama bottoms and her top. She slipped on her shirt and pulled up her baggy pants. She brushed her hair as much as she could while putting on her boots and rushed out her door to see her injured boyfriend. She ran until she got to his room. She stopped and looked over at the door. 'Maybe…..' she thought to herself, 'Just maybe he was released back to his room already.' She knocked on the door. She didn't receive an answer. She kept knocking. 'Please!' she screamed in her mind. She began knocking harder and harder, until the door eventually opened. "Ichika?" she yelped, hoping he was back.

She peered in to see no one there. 'The door must've not been closed very well,' she thought to herself in disappointment. She walked in a few steps and looked around. His room was sort of dirty; the bed was not made, there were some clothes on the ground, and the chair at his desk wasn't pushed in. "Huhh." She sighed as she began to pick some of his stuff up. She folded his clothes and put them in his dresser and tidied up everywhere. She went to go make his bed when she tripped on something and fell onto it. She looked down to see his shoes all on the ground and out in the open. "God dammit." She said in a quiet voice because she didn't want to wake anyone else up. She got up and started to make his bed. She flattened out the sheets and tucked them into the bottom of the bed. She took the blanket and laid it gently on the bed so it covered the whole thing. She picked his pillow and began to fluff it when a scent reached her nose. The pillow smelled like him. It was a nice smell, surprisingly. She hugged the pillow against her face and thought of him for a while. 'Wait,' she thought, 'I am supposed to go see him and give him moral support, and I'm standing here like an idiot holding his pillow!' She threw the pillow back onto his bed, messing up the blanket, and stormed out of his room, slamming his door behind her. She briskly walked down the hallway with a very confident and upright posture. Eventually, she had reached the medical ward.

"Is Ichika Orimura in here?" she asked in a voice that didn't in the slightest sound like she cared about his well being and that she was just checking in.

"Why, yes." The woman at the counter said in a sad voice. "Do you know what happened to him?" Laura's heart sank. She wasn't going to say what happened. Just the sound of the woman's voice signified that he was injured, and the fact that she was part of the reason he was here was just too much.

"I do not." She replied. "Is he allowed visitors?"

"Well, yes, but-" The woman was cut off by Laura charging in after hearing the word yes. Laura didn't care what the rest of the sentence was; she just wanted to see him. She walked in to see that the only bed occupied was in the back right corner. The curtain was pulled out, so she could only see his feet. She continued walking, almost passing out in anticipation of his condition. She pulled the curtain back to reveal his upper body.

"!" Laura was speechless. Ichika had his left arm in a cast and suspended up. His right arm was riddled with bruises on the upper arm, but the forearm was alright. He had a huge bandage across his forehead with a black eye and cuts on his face. His chest was exposed. He had bruises all over and multiple bandages; He had stitches going across the top right of his chest and onto his collar bone. He had his eyes closed, but the machine monitoring his heartbeat was still beeping.

"Oh, Ichika….." She said, lifelessly, as if she had lost all hope. "How could I do this to you…?" She slumped down into s chair and looked out the window lifelessly. "Please feel better…." She uttered under her breath.

"Don't worry, I'm really sore, but the pain isn't too bad surprisingly."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed. Please Review!


	9. Memories

Hey everyone! Sorry about this long wait. I sort of forgot about my fanfictions since the end of the school year was approaching, but I saw that this story was still supported and people wanted me to finish it, so here I am. I always wanted to finish it, but could never really bring myself to sit down and actually finish it. Anyway, not a long chapter, but I wanted to update just so people remembered this Fanfic and so everyone can check up on it now. Expect the next chapter to be a big one, so it might take about a week or so. I'm done rambling, so here we go! DISCLAIMER: I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its Characters

* * *

"Don't worry, I'm really sore, but the pain isn't too bad surprisingly." Laura's eyes shot open faster than ever. She shot up from the chair and looked at Ichika. His eyes were open and he had a small smile on his face. "I'm just glad that you aren't hurt. Right?" He asked her. She couldn't even make an intelligent reply. She stood there with her mouth wide open, but couldn't form any words. The only thing she could do was jump into his arms.

"Ahhh!" He screamed quickly when she jumped on the bed next to him and wrapped her arms around his chest. He looked at her with a smile. "Be careful, I don't want any of these stitches popping out."

"I'm sorry…" She said, still sounding sad.

"It's no big deal; I think all of them are still intact." He told her.

"No," she said. "For everything. I'm sorry that you had to go through all of this because of Charlotte and I. I shouldn't have fought her. Handling a situation like this as an adult is what I should've done."

"Well, think about it this way," Ichika said, still smiling at her, "I think you've proved that you are committed to this relationship." She was amazed that he could turn a situation like this into one of happiness.

"So have you." She said. Taking so many hits like that had to have proved his loyalty for her. "Hey," she said, about to ask a question. "How did you get that slash on your chest?"

"This?" he said looking down at it. "Judging by where it is, I would say one of your beam swords did it."

"Yes!" she said, jumping onto her feet and off the bed. "I knew that I won! I bet what happened to your arm is of my doing as well; the Schwarzer Regen _is_ unbeatable after all." She said braggingly. She looked down at his face, while still celebrating her victory to see his smile had disappeared and he was just looking at her. She realized that she had just been bragging about injuring her boyfriend. She felt sick to her stomach. Like before, she stood there not knowing what to say. The silence was long and awkward. Eventually, it was broken by Ichika.

"Bwahahaha!" He laughed loudly. "Only you would celebrate at a time like this." It felt like a rock was dropped into her stomach. "But it's fine, because it is why I like you." Her spirits were immediately restored. She walked back over there and laid down on the bed next to him carefully.

"Thank you." She said, with her eyes closed. She wrapped her arms back around him and his one arm around her. They were all alone.

"Hey Laura." Ichika said.

"Yes?" she asked him. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"What is it?" she said,

"Yeah….." Ichika said.

"So…." She said, in an effort to incite something "How long are you going to be stuck in here?"

"I'm not quite sure," he said, but it was clear he was focused on something else, "but I have something else I want to say." Laura looked at him. She was a mess of emotions and had no idea what to think or say or even react, she was just going to listen. "You came into this school hating me. The first interaction we ever had was when you slapped me. I never once thought that we could be friends because I didn't even know why you didn't like me. Over time, I started to understand more of you and was able to be more in-tune with you, even though you didn't like me. I don't like having enemies though, so I tried everything possible to become your friend. Once I was there, I had no idea where it was going to go, but I was willing to try anything you wanted to." She stared at him. It was all she could do. "Once I got to know you, I saw that there was much more to you than a tough outer shell. There was a person who was robbed of something priceless: their childhood. And while I couldn't give that back to you, I could do everything in my power to help you fit in and learn things that the most of us already know. So I started to talk more with you, connect more with you, and to even go as far as to pretend to date you. I thought this was going to be a great experience for you; not once did I think that I would gain anything from this other than trouble. But I was wrong." Laura's facial expression began to change. Her eyes slowly widened and her breath rate increased. "What I gained is something that I don't want to lose. It was an amazing friendship that blossomed into something great. I know I'm not one for speeches or being deep or anything like that, but you, Laura Bodewig, make me proud to say that there is someone in my life who means much more than any stupid grade or IS could. My feelings may be jumbled and I'm coming out with a lot of things here, but dammit, I'm going to say what I feel and I'm not going to regret one bit of it. Laura," Laura held her breath as he paused. She felt his hand grab hers. Despite his newfound confidence, Ichika made a big gulp. "I love you."

She was at a loss for words. She had never been told that genuinely by someone. 'Could he finally be the one?' Her lip began to quiver. Would she just be hurt again? She tore her hand from his grasp and slowly stepped away from him, looking horrified. "Is something wrong?" he said, worried that he had scared her away. Without a word, she turned from him and ran out of the room. "Wait!" he exclaimed, but it was no use.

Tears began to run down her face as she ran down the seemingly endless hallway. Her steps were all wobbly and she could barely run in a straight line. The echoes of her footsteps bounced all around the hall until they came back at her, as if they were mocking her. It was only a matter of time until she came crashing to the ground. She mustered the strength to get back on her feet and walk towards the beginning of the stairs. Her hair hung over her face as she stumbled into the railing. She grabbed it and slowly pulled herself to the ground to sit. It was unsure if she was still crying or not.

* * *

"Get down from there, you incompetent waste!" A woman with a loud voice screamed at a young Laura. She had climbed up to the third floor of the academy that she trained out and was standing out on the ledge of the 5th floor.

"Please! It's dangerous up there!" the woman with the soft voice called out to her. "You have to come down." The woman looked around at everyone. "Someone go up there and get her!"

"No." a woman with a sinister voice said. "We must not interfere. This situation must work itself out. This will be a learning experience for all of us."

"Stop treating her like she is some sort of experiment!" the woman with the soft voice retorted. "This is a human life we are talking about. She obviously feels alienated and we need to make her know that she is welcome here. She is going through things that we can't even imagine."

"Exactly." The woman with the sinister voice retaliated. "We don't know what she is going through. We need to see what she does to see if there is a problem with the product."

"She isn't a product! She is a girl just like you and I, wishing to live a normal life. Why can't we give her a chance at a normal life?"

"Don't let your connection with the young experiment get in the way of your profession, or else we will find a better position for you." The woman with the sinister voice threatened her. The woman with the soft voice could do nothing but be silent. This was her only way to remain close to Laura. She looked over to the woman with the loud voice. She was standing there yelling at Laura through a megaphone.

"...And after that, I will make you wish you were never born unless you get down from there this insta-" She was cut short by the woman with the soft voice. She ripped the megaphone out of her hand and put it up to her own mouth.

"Laura," She began to say, preparing to pour her heart out to her. "What you are going through is extraordinary. None of us can even begin to imagine what you are going through. However, we all appreciate what you are doing for us and we wouldn't know what to do without you. You must come down. Everyone loves you down here. I love you. Know come down please, we are all worried sick…" she said, pausing to see her reaction. Laura looked down at everyone down on the ground floor. She saw everyone looking up at her and suddenly felt frightened. She was afraid to fall. She turned around and walked in through the window. Everyone held their breath for a minute while they waited for her to emerge from the building. After a few minutes, they saw a silhouette appear in the hallway. It was of course Laura.

"Laura!" The woman with the soft voice called out to her. Laura began to run out towards her. The woman got on her knees to hug Laura. Just when Laura exited the building, the woman with the loud voice grabbed her.

"I got you, you runt!" she exclaimed and she forcefully handed her over to the security forces.

"Let me go!" Laura shouted as she struggled. She reached her hand out to reach towards the woman with the soft voice.

"Stop!" the woman with the soft voice exclaimed as she rose to her feet. She felt a hand on the back of her neck.

"Think very carefully about what you are about to do." It was the woman with the sinister voice. "You wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you or even worse…" The woman with the soft voice knew exactly what she meant. Once she sensed that she had the other woman under her control, she said "Good, now you are going to turn around and walk away, without saying a word." The woman with the soft voice knew that she had to follow her orders. She looked down at the ground and tried to ignore the "Help me!"'s coming from behind her. She walked back, in a state of absolute anger.

"Hey," The woman with the loud voice called out. "That was good saying that stuff to that brat. It was nice in tricking her. Worked like a charm." The woman with the soft voice was silent. "Hey, I'm tryin' to compliment you; the least you can do is thank me." The woman just kept on walking. "I said, He-"

"That's enough." She was cut off by the woman with the sinister voice. "Let her be alone."

"Jeez." The woman replied. "The nerve of some people these days. She's acting as if Laura was her own flesh and blood."

"…That's the problem." The woman with the sinister voice replied. She then proceeded to walk away, leaving the woman with the loud voiced in a state of confusion.

* * *

This was all a memory that she could not just forget. 'I'm just going to end up tricked again. I must finish what I started!' Laura rose to her feet. She knew what she had to do, so she ascended the stairs to decide her fate.

* * *

It was now the end of the day. The sun was setting on a crimson sky while Chifuyu sat in her office. The sun was just about to hide behind the horizon. It was truly a sight. She decided to check on Ichika and see how he was doing. She stepped out of her office and descended down the stairs. She saw that the hallways were unusually quiet, but this didn't bother her. She walked down to the medical ward and opened the door to Ichika's room. She could only say one utterance.

"Damn it."

* * *

Don't forget to review!


	10. MUCH NEEDED UPDATE

***UPDATE***

Okay, so first of all I'd like to say that I'm sorry for letting this story just sit here for so long. I kind of just forgot about this story until recently when a friend started tormenting me about how I never finished it, so I'm giving this update saying that I am planning on finishing it soon, probably about a week until I publish a new chapter, no idea if the next one will be the last one though. Since it's been so long since I initially wrote this, I really have to read back through to keep everything in order and up to everyone's expectations (if there is even anyone left lmao). Hopefully my writing style will not have changed too much over the years for consistency's sake. And once again, I'm sorry that I've left this story open for so long, after reading all of your kind reviews and messages I just couldn't let it wait any longer. Thank you to everyone who has even visited my story over the past few years; I am grateful for all of you. I hope I don't disappoint!


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